Microsoft Confirms It's Still In Talks With Sony For Cross-Platform Play

Microsoft announced earlier this year that it will allow cross-platform play for “Minecraft” between the Xbox One and the Nintendo Switch. The PlayStation 4 didn't join in at the time, but Microsoft just confirmed that it’s still in talks with Sony about cross-platform play.

“We're talking to Sony [about crossplay], we do partner with them on ‘Minecraft’ and of course we would like to enable them to be part of that; one community, to unite gamers,” Xbox head of marketing Aaron Greenberg told GameReactor at Gamescom 2017. “So we're talking to them and we're hopeful that they'll be supportive of it.”

This isn’t the first time that Microsoft teased the possibility of crossplay between the Xbox One and the PS4. Back at E3 last June, Xbox general manager Dave McCarthy did say that Microsoft had discussions with Sony, but Sony wasn’t supportive of this idea.

“Quite frankly, we'd love to have Sony there. We discussed it,” McCarthy said at the time. “They're not quite there yet [laughs] on support for that. But my hope is that they join the party as well because I think it's an awesome thing to do for gamers.”

Microsoft first announced plans of cross-platform play back in March 2016. Soon after, Sony expressed interest at doing the same thing, according to GameSpot. However, the PlayStation Network is still closed off from other gaming platforms and that might continue to be the case in the near future.

Microsoft’s Xbox One is lagging behind the PlayStation 4 in terms of console shipments and exclusive titles. It makes sense for Microsoft to introduce crossplay with other consoles as it might help the company entice players to but an Xbox console, as pointed out by Kotaku.

For Sony, crossplay is something that it doesn’t need right now. The PlayStation 4 is currently the best selling console worldwide and has become the console of choice for users who simply want to play with their friends. Having crossplay enabled between the PS4 and the Xbox One doesn’t really benefit Sony in any way at this point.

“It's certainly not a profound philosophical stance we have against this. We've done it in the past. We're always open to conversations with any developer or publisher who wants to talk about it,” PlayStation global sales and marketing head Jim Ryan told Eurogamer back in June. “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 also explained that Sony was being mindful of its install base. “Minecraft,” for example, has a demographic of all ages including those who are very young. Sony won't be able to manage potential external influences that can come into contact with children. Xbox head Phil Spencer took offense in Ryan’s explanation saying that that kind of dialogue is unhealthy for the video game industry as a whole.

“The fact that somebody would make an assertion that somehow we're not keeping Minecraft players safe ... I found, not only from a Microsoft perspective but an industry perspective, I don't know why that has to become the dialogue,” Spencer said.

“That doesn't seem healthy for anyone. We can always do better with anything we do. I find the whole discussion around safety with our game and that somehow we wouldn't take that as a top priority … and frankly, through our parental controls on Xbox Live and everything else that we've done, shown that that's incredible important to us as a platform.”