With the announcement for Rocket League coming to the Nintendo Switch and a new update on Minecraft, a much bigger bit of news was slipped in that will have major implications for online gaming moving forward. Both Rocket League and Minecraft will be cross-platform compatible with gamers on an Xbox One, PC and the Switch. Minecraft is even capable of allowing mobile and VR users to play with everyone else as well. But what about the PS4? Sony has a response.
In an interview with Eurogamer, Sony mentioned the reason for not supporting cross-platform play is because Sony needs to be “mindful of the responsibility [they] have to [their] install base.”
“Minecraft - the demographic playing that, you know as well as I do, it's all ages but it's also very young. We have a contract with the people who go online with us, that we look after them and they are within the PlayStation curated universe,” Jim Ryan, the PlayStation global sales and marketing leader told Eurogamer. “Exposing what in many cases are children to external influences we have no ability to manage or look after, it's something we have to think about very carefully.”
So Sony is not allowing cross-platform support… for the kids? That seems like an odd decision when even Nintendo, perhaps the most kid-friendly and least tech-savvy video game company around, is on board. It’s made even more strange when cross-platform support for Rocket League already exists between PS4 and PC players. How is that deemed OK for PlayStation, but other consoles are not?
The good news is that Ryan left the possibility of cross-platform support open for a later time. “I don't think anything is ever a done deal. Anybody who is dogmatic in that manner is typically a fool,” he said about a reverse in policy. “That said, to my knowledge, there is no live conversation ongoing at the moment.” Maybe things will be different if the next game that tries for cross-platform support isn’t popular with children.
So what do you think? Are you disappointed to see Sony defending its position on not supporting cross-platform play? What other games would you like to be able to play with people on other consoles? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
