Cross-platform play between Xbox One and PS4 is the ‘will they, won’t they’ story of the year, but Xbox boss Phil Spencer has again suggested Sony is the one applying the brakes.
Players of games like Rocket League and Minecraft can already enjoy cross-platform play across Switch, Xbox One, and Steam. And recently, a “configuration issue” allowed Fortnite players on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One compete with each other (before the feature was swiftly disabled).
Evidently then, it’s not a technical issue. So why won’t Sony let its flagship console join the party? We don’t know for sure (the firm has only offered some vague reasoning), but in a recent interview with Gamespot, Spencer implored Sony to give people a concrete answer.
“We talk to Sony all the time. With Minecraft on PlayStation, we have to be one of the biggest games on their platform in terms of sales and gameplay,” he explained. “Same with Nintendo. The relationship with Nintendo on this front has been strong.
“They’ve been great supporters and we continue to collaborate with them. But I think Sony’s view is different. They should talk about what their view is…”
When asked if we should give up on the cross-platform dream, Spencer said he wouldn’t call it a “lost cause” just yet, but added that he doesn’t know what it’d take for Sony to change its mind. What’s more, he also can’t understand why any games company would want to hurt its player and creators, and ultimately, that’s what a lack of cross-platform does.
“I think people look at [cross-play] and say is it better for gamers. If it’s better for gamers, I have a hard time thinking why we shouldn’t go do this, especially when you’re trying to make the gaming business a bigger business; grow it, get more games, create more opportunity,” he finished.
“Especially in the indie space, actually. If you’re creating an online indie game and you’re going to create five [shards] of your game–the Steam version, Xbox Live on PC, Xbox version, the PlayStation version, the Switch version creates hard matchmaking scenarios. We should help developers, not make their lives more difficult.”
To hear more from Spencer, check out the full article over on Gamespot.
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2017