Sony Defends Blocking PS4 Cross-Play

[ShineCero]

Earlier this week at E3, Microsoft made the big announcement that Minecraft will support cross-play with the Nintendo Switch version of the game. While Microsoft is hopeful that Sony will get on board, it hasn't happened yet, and now a Sony executive has explained one reason why.

Speaking to Eurogamer, PlayStation executive Jim Ryan said, "It's certainly not a profound philosophical stance we have against this," adding that Sony is "always" interested in talking with companies about things like this.


So why is there no cross-play between PS4 and Xbox One yet? Ryan said, "Unfortunately, it's a commercial discussion between ourselves and other stakeholders, and I'm not going to get into the detail of that on this particular instance."

Ryan went on to suggest that Sony is concerned about what could go wrong when allowing its own players, some of which could be children, to connect to a network outside of its own.

"We've got to be mindful of our responsibility to our install base. Minecraft--the demographic playing that, you know as well as I do, it's all ages but it's also very young," he said. "We have a contract with the people who go online with us, that we look after them and they are within the PlayStation curated universe. Exposing what in many cases are children to external influences we have no ability to manage or look after, it's something we have to think about very carefully."

You can read the full interview here at Eurogamer.

Microsoft's Dave McCarthy told GameSpot at E3 this week that the company has had discussions with Sony about cross-play, but Sony is "not quite there yet."

"My hope is that they join the party as well because I think it's an awesome thing to do for gamers," he said.

In March 2016, Microsoft publicly announced that it was open to connecting Xbox Live to other gaming networks, including PlayStation Network and Nintendo's own online service. Sony later suggested it was open to this, but it has not happened yet, and it doesn't seem like it will soon.

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[Freak]

Their whole defense of no crossplay is just bullshit. Seriously, their only excuse is "it's for the kids yo" and yet they still refuse to do it on Rocket League, which I'm 90% sure isn't dominated by children as their playerbase. It's all about the money and their dominance of the console market right now. As it stands, they're no better than Intel about things like this, which frankly just pisses me off. Given MSoft's track record under Phil Spencer with their open arms approach to x-play and modding as well as their no-bullshit philosophy with the Xbox One X, I think I see my bias shifting from Playstation to Xbox. Of course, the Nintendo Switch gets brownie points for allowing crossplay as well, which, if I recall correctly, is also going to be a thing on the Switch port of Rocket League.

 

[ShineCero]

Their whole defense of no crossplay is just bullshit. Seriously, their only excuse is "it's for the kids yo" and yet they still refuse to do it on Rocket League, which I'm 90% sure isn't dominated by children as their playerbase. It's all about the money and their dominance of the console market right now. As it stands, they're no better than Intel about things like this, which frankly just pisses me off. Given MSoft's track record under Phil Spencer with their open arms approach to x-play and modding as well as their no-bullshit philosophy with the Xbox One X, I think I see my bias shifting from Playstation to Xbox. Of course, the Nintendo Switch gets brownie points for allowing crossplay as well, which, if I recall correctly, is also going to be a thing on the Switch port of Rocket League.

Completely agreed. There is literally no justification for this other than "s-shit! W-we can't just share the profits! There can only be one! So buy OUR console" mentality. They can't even use the children excuse considering Nintendo, the more child-friendly device is on the crossplay wagon. :maybe: