In a time when online play is more important than ever, Super Smash Bros Ultimate continues to lag behind the competition. Frankly, the game’s online functionality is unacceptable for a modern title and there’s no good reason that it still doesn’t support crossplay.
I want to enjoy the game, but the terrible online really holds the experience back. I bought a copy of Smash Ultimate on the Switch so that means I can only play online with other Switch players. But why not support crossplay so that I can play everyone else?
I know the Switch still has the largest player base for Smash Ultimate, but the lack of crossplay shrinks the player base for all the other platforms. Many are forced onto the Switch just for a chance to find matches. This just makes it so anyone who bought a copy of Smash Ultimate for another system probably got ripped off.
The thing is, everyone would find more matches if the game would finally support completely practical and basic online features like crossplay. And if we want this to happen then we need to stop making excuses for these developers.
Despite having online modes that are suitable for the stone age, Smash Ultimate is massively successful and clearly has more than enough resources to fix this. The game is impressive in many regards, putting together one of the biggest crossovers ever. The developers even mentioned how they were able to implement challenging features from Minecraft to accommodate guest fighters from the series. Well you know what else Minecraft has? It has crossplay, and copying that instead would have gone much farther than adding in some blocks.
Of course it still takes time and effort to add in crossplay, but much smaller studios have been able to accomplish this task. For example I can load up the Switch version of Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid and I’m able to play against players on Switch, PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. So why can’t Smash Ultimate do the same?
The truth is that they can do the same, but choose not to make it a priority. That’s why we need to stop supporting these games that neglect basic online features unless they finally get with the program. Smash Ultimate claims that “everyone is here” but until it finally supports crossplay that just isn’t true.
Fix the game already.
