Sony, Once Again, Is Holding Back the Gaming Future
For a company’s whose tagline for their gaming console is “this is for the players”, Sony’s actions continue to speak much louder than their marketing efforts. The company is once again blocking cross-play functionality and this is becoming a common trend that is hurting the overall gaming community and more importantly, limiting the future of gaming.
Minecraft, Rocket League, and a few others games have the ability to allow players from different platforms to compete against each other. While Nintendo has embraced this functionality and PC gamers can play with console gamers in supported titles, Sony has always been sitting on the outside looking in but it can only blame itself.
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The latest edition of Sony blocking crossplay is with Fortnite Battle Royale. Microsoft has already publicly said it supports cross-play with this title which puts the limitation squarely on Sony’s shoulders as Kotaku notes that in September, a ‘configuration issue’ accidentally allowed PS4 and Xbox players fight it out online before the setting was updated.
Seeing as crossplay is only an artificial barrier that Sony is creating across several games, the real question is “why would Sony block this?”
That answer is quite easy, they have nothing to gain from enabling its users to play against players on other devices. Unlike Microsoft, if you game on a PC, Sony doesn’t make any money and that’s likely the crux of the issue here.
The interesting thing is that Sony is locking itself into a walled garden much like that of Apple or even Microsoft of the late 90s. The company can do this as they are the market leader for this generation of consoles but by limiting the online aspect of their hardware, they are likely damaging their gaming brand but if that will have any meaningful impact, we won’t know for some time.
Sony hasn’t stated publicly why they won’t enable this functionality but one thing is clear, it’s hurting the overall gaming community and putting PS4 players at an unnecessary disadvantage.
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Conversation 26 comments
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skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#252687"><em>In reply to EraseYourself:</em></a></blockquote><p>Nintendo might be OK with some partnering today, but really they're the poster boy for closed gaming systems. Prior to the release of the NES, we thought the kind of license-only approach that Nintendo created would be considered illegal. Generally the specs of game machines were a trade secret but anyone who could reverse engineer them (or buy the specs from someone who had) could make a game without having to get any permission from the console maker.</p>
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Stooks
<blockquote><a href="#252747"><em>In reply to CaedenV:</em></a></blockquote><p>"Most people who own an Xbox ALSO have a PS."</p><p><br></p><p>Ummm there is this thing called Math.</p><p><br></p><p>Quick Google search shows 75million PS4's sold vs 36 Million Xbox's sold. So half of 75 million is 37.5 million. </p><p><br></p><p>Assuming every Xbox sold goes to a owner of a PS4 (umm now way) that is LESS than half of all PS4 owners or…..more than half of all PS4 owners don't own a Xbox.</p>
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dontbe evil
<p>this is for the players*</p><p><br></p><p>*just kidding</p>
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Stooks
<p>Time to get off your high horse Brad. </p><p><br></p><p>If the Xbox had sold 75 million to the PS 36 million Microsoft would NEVER support cross play with the PS. Probably with the PC but no way with the PS.</p><p><br></p><p>It is called business 101.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>