Hi-Rez Studios is finally bringing Paladins, Smite, and Realm Royale players on PlayStation 4 into the cross-play fold, and those on Sony's machine will be able to team up with - or battle against - those on Switch, Xbox One, and PC starting today.

Hero shooter Paladins, its battle royale spin-off Realm Royale, and MOBA Smite all received support for cross-platform play between Switch, Xbox One, and PC earlier this year. Around the same time, Hi-Rez Studios' CEO, Stewart Chisam, fired shots at Sony on Twitter, writing that "It's time to stop playing favourites and tear down the crossplay/progression wall for everyone." Chisam told Sony it had versions of its games "ready to go when you are."

Now, some seven months later, the studio has announced that, following work with Sony, cross-play support is now live for Paladins on PS4, with updates for Smite due on 17th September and Realm Royale in "early October". To celebrate, Hi-Rez has release this thing:

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The battle royale genre is a cut-throat business, and its latest victim appears to be Hi-Rez Studio's Realm Royale.

The game was released on Steam in early access on 5th June, and despite attention from high-profile streamers such as Ninja it has failed to retain public interest. According to stats on Steamdb (via GitHyp), the game has lost 94 per cent of its player base in only two months. Peaking at 105,440 players on June 10th, the number yesterday slipped to a mere 5561.

Realm Royale began life as a game mode in Hi-Rez's (more successful) hero-shooter Paladins. Realm Royale differs from other battle royales in a few ways: there are five different character classes, there's a crafting system, and players transform into chickens when killed. Yet even this gimmick has failed to prevent players from flying the coop.

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