Microsoft invited other online networks to join onto Xbox Live in order to promote cross-play between competitive consoles back in March of 2016. Such an announcement gained a lot of attention at the time of the announcement. And even more recently, at this year’s E3 Microsoft and Nintendo announced a partnership with Minecraft to allow cross-play between the Xbox One and the Nintendo Switch.
Despite this new development, Sony has been reluctant to join with any other networks. The company states that part of the reason that they haven’t made such gestures is that they are concerned for the safety of Playstation Network users. During a recent interview between Xbox boss Phil Spencer and Gamespot Spencer the executive shed some light on where they current matter stands with Sony. He stated that the two companies communicate quite often but there isn’t any ground gained one way or the other.
“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,” Spencer said. “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 the possibility of cross-play being a lost cause Spencer stated that he didn’t want to eactly speak for Sony, but feels that the company just isn’t up for it. In a general view of the matter Spencer said that cross-play will allow for games to stay rich because of the much larger player population. However, it doesn’t seem like anything technical is holding cross-play from happening between the two consoles. It’s just the matter of each of them reaching an agreement.