This week, Microsoft’s Phil Spencer complained openly that Sony will not allow Minecraft cross-platform play to include the PlayStation 4. Nintendo, another competitor, has no problem with this capability, however.
“We talk to Sony all the time,” Mr. Spencer told Gamespot. “With Minecraft on PlayStation, we have to be one of the biggest games on their platform in terms of sales and gameplay. 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…”
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Indeed.
As you may recall, Microsoft this past summer announced that it would consolidate the many different versions of its hit game Minecraft across (almost) all of the platforms it supports. It was arguably the singular blockbuster announcements of this year’s E3 conference. Since then, Microsoft has updated Minecraft with the Better Together update, enabling that cross-platform play.
Except on PlayStation 4.
We’ve known since E3 that Microsoft’s inability to bring cross-platform Minecraft play to PS4 was Sony’s fault. But Spencer and other Microsoft executives had, to date, expressed hope that the firm would do the right thing.
Today, it appears that hope has died.
“I have a real struggle making comments about their motivation or timelines,” he says. “I know there is a certain view that says if my friends have this console, they can’t play with people who buy another console. That’s a reason they go buy my console. That reason is not going to go away. So we’re putting Minecraft out there as one of the biggest games on any platform and allowing people to play together regardless of what device they bought. I don’t think everybody is taking that same approach to the ecosystem. So I’m never going to call anything a lost cause but I think some of the fundamental reasons and certain scenarios, they’re not really going away. So I don’t know what would change.”
Sony, come on. Seriously.
dontbe evil
<p>sony style: "this is for the players"</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#206722"><em>In reply to Winner:</em></a></blockquote><p>I missed the part where Mike said ActiveX was a standard. Both MS and Netscape made the web better by going beyond and sometimes breaking standards. IMO standards are not the place for innovation or invention but to codify existing practice. One could argue that in the early days of the web the standards were established too early before the design was really fleshed out.</p>
skane2600
<p>In a way Nintendo could be blamed. Prior to their entry into video game consoles it was generally believed that vendors couldn't block anyone from making games for their system whether they had permission or not. The approach back then was to make the documentation for the console proprietary but competitors were able to reverse-engineer the product.</p>
Bats
<p>This is classic Microsoft. If you can't beat it, infiltrate and infect it. </p><p><br></p><p>C'mon let's get real. This isn't good for the Minecraft community, which believe me, no one cares about. It's funny how Microsoft is trying to create a platform with it. LOL…it's not going to work. In fact Minecraft is no longer popular at all. In fact, at the NYC Comic Con 2017, there was absolutely no Minecraft merchandise at all. In 2013, there used to be tons of vendors in the showroom selling all kinds of minecraft, but today….none.</p><p><br></p><p>I hate to say it, but this is going to be another big time fail for Microsoft. </p><p><br></p><p>While Microsoft is re-inforcing Minecraft where players build things, Google and Sony will be concentrating on actual Augmented Reality experiences that are ten times better than Minecraft. LOL…it's so funny how Microsoft thinks that they can influence and inspire future programming engineers when they are at the age of 5. LOL…it's totally unrealistic.</p><p><br></p><p>I remember hearing Paul marvel about Minecraft on a Windows Weekly podcast or What the Tech (I forgot which one). It's as if he never played an MMO game before. With the exception of World of Warcraft, MMO games come and go all the time. Users find other things and better things to do. That will be the story of Minecraft.</p>
Pargon
Premium Member<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Microsoft should have immediately discontinued manufacturing discs for Minecraft and removed it from the playstation store when they bought Mojang and re-released the game with more content for Xbox. Short term profits were definitely taken over long term viability of the Xbox brand. Microsoft shooting themselves in the foot….again, with the highest selling game of all time I do believe. Pure stupidity!</span></p>
Pargon
Premium Member<blockquote><a href="#206827"><em>In reply to Ukumio:</em></a></blockquote><p>Because Sony does so much right for their customers…. Absolutely should have put Minecraft only on Microsoft systems, the PC, phones. Both sides do this limited exclusivity stuff all the time, I don't think there'd be nearly as much backlash as you think. Didn't say to stop the servers…just not to release the game's expansions or the eventual Minecraft 2 to other platforms.</p><p><br></p><p>Microsoft does a LOT of harm to their brand every week, killing groove, not mentioning phones for over 2 years, killing band, etc. They've burned millions for years on products. Time to think about the longevity of their brand for once, not the short term profits….And I'm saying this as a 5 year shareholder, during which time they've crushed apple in the stock market.</p>
Dryloch
<p>And if Microsoft was the one with a huge lead they would do the same thing.</p>