One advantage to PC games is that you get to play multiplayer games with other PC gamers regardless of what brand or specs that they are using, as long as it runs the game and they have an internet connection, you’re good to go. Console players on the other hand are different, where Sony and Microsoft offer up their own online services that don’t typically allow cross-play.Unfortunately that’s not going to change soon as far as Tekken 7 is concerned, but the game’s producer Katsuhiro Harada revealed to GameSpot that this is something that they are pushing for. According to Harada, it isn’t so much the technical hurdles but rather the security protocols that makes cross-play almost impossible at the moment.
He was quoted as saying (via a translator in the form of producer Michael Murray), “Since Tekken has three platforms, to do [cross-play] is much more difficult because fighting games are peer-to-peer, which means you connected directly to your opponent. That means all the security protocols regarding PSN or Xbox Live, the user IDs and such, is quite difficult to match that–not technologically.”
However since it seems unlikely that Sony or Microsoft will be changing their security policies anytime soon, Harada doesn’t think that cross-play is possible for Tekken 7 at this point in time. “[But] until there is some kind of progress between the first-parties adapting their security policies and just policy in general regarding online, to allow that, it’s not going to be viable at this time. It’s not to say that’s the case forever. But until they change their policies, there’s not a whole lot we can do.”