Sony is looking for a solution that will be “accepted” by the PS4 community regarding cross-platform play with Xbox One and Switch. Speaking at the Gamelab conference in Spain today, Sony Interactive Entertainment America CEO Shawn Layden said the company is looking into “a lot of possibilities” regarding the ability for PS4 users to play with those on competing consoles. Sony has faced rather severe backlash of late over the inability to play Fortnite on Switch if folks used the same account to play it on PS4. “We’re hearing it, said Layden when questioned by Eurogamer at the conference. “We’re looking at a lot of the possibilities. “You can imagine that the circumstances around that affect a lot more than just one game. I’m confident we’ll get to a solution which will be understood and accepted by our gaming community, while at the same time supporting our business.” While Layden’s comment is noncommittal, it’s better than the stock reply made by Sony during E3 2018. And, as he said, the ability for folks to play with other system owners goes beyond Fortnite. Psyonix has wanted everyone to be able to play Rocket League together for ages. Psyonix has said bringing PS4 on board is a “push of a button” away should Sony ever change its stance, as the game allows for PC, Switch, and Xbox One users to play together. Another title which supports the option is Minecraft, which Nintendo and Microsoft are rather proud of – you saw the cheeky trailer. John Smedley, former president of Sony Online Entertainment, believes Sony’s planting its feet on the matter due to money. “When I was at Sony, the stated reason internally for this was money,” he said last week. “They didn’t like someone buying something on an Xbox and it being used on a PlayStation. simple as that. Dumb reason, but there it is.” On the flip side, one analyst believes Sony has little to gain by enabling cross-platform play. According to Karol Severin at MIDiA Research, PS4 has the hardware lead this generation, and as such, doesn’t need to offer the incentive. While both Smedley and Severin are right in their assessments, times are changing and they are changing fast. Publishers are looking to the cloud, which the companies say will allow customers to play games “where they want and on any device they want” once streaming takes over. Xbox boss Phil Spencer has previously said playing video games is “less about having specific devices” in order to play a certain game. Instead, it’s about games being “accessible on any device.” He reiterated as much during the Xbox E3 briefing. Ubisoft, Capcom, and Electronic Arts are also on board, as each want the ability for customers to play games on any device they wish. If the next console generation is the last before streaming takes over, as Ubisoft believes, it means after PS5 and the next Xbox, we may no longer be using separate boxes to play specific games. Maybe. That’s the theory at any rate. We don’t pretend to know how the big three would handle such things. Hopefully, Sony will get on board will cross-platform play sooner rather than later. It already allows cross-play with PC. Even if it doesn’t want to make friends with Microsoft just yet, hopefully it will at least change its stance on Nintendo. It would be a step in the right direction “For the Players” at least.<doc-sep>The commercial for the latest Nintendo Switch update for Minecraft, which allows cross-platform play, does something that may be a first for the modern gaming industry: It promotes a competitor’s console in a positive way. Seeing the Xbox and Switch logos together in a single commercial, released on Nintendo’s official YouTube channel, is surreal. Which makes Sony’s decision to not allow cross-platform play look even worse. You can watch the commercial above, and see how much attention each platform is given. You see both controllers, and the players are having fun in both cases. The ad makes the case pretty strongly: Minecraft is a fun party you can attend together if you have a Switch or an Xbox One ... but Sony won’t let you in with a PlayStation 4. It’s a big party that Sony apparently didn’t want to attend. Sony’s refusal to allow cross-platform play, and players’ inability to use their Epic Games accounts on the Switch or the Xbox One if they’ve ever played on the PS4, was already the source of a major controversy during E3. Sony’s response to the Fortnite situation was a disaster, and this Minecraft commercial shows how Nintendo and Microsoft can promote cross-platform play in a positive way while also implicitly dunking on Sony. Hey @Xbox, since we can play together in @Minecraft now, did you want to build something? pic.twitter.com/LIylWy3yXZ — Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) June 21, 2018 Members of the Minecraft team have been vocal in the past about wanting to bring cross-platform play to the PS4, and Rocket League developer Psyonix has told Polygon that the feature is done. Sony simply won’t let the team turn it on. We would love to have PlayStation players along with the unified Minecraft, hope that we can. https://t.co/hRGPG8Aj8a — Aubrey Norris (@Chupacaubrey) June 11, 2017 A former Sony executive recently said that the issue comes down to the company not wanting items bought on other platforms to ever be used on the PS4. This issue isn’t going to go away, and this sort of cross-promotion for multiple platforms playing the same game together is another indication that everyone but Sony is willing to play nice together in the current market. This is an inflection point in gaming, and Sony risks being left behind. This parody image may sum up fan reaction perfectly:<doc-sep>
CNET The PlayStation 4 needs to learn how to play nice with other consoles -- and Sony is finally offering some hope that it will. Right now, Sony doesn't support cross-platform play, so you can't play online with Xbox or Nintendo Switch players from your PS4. While playing online games with different consoles isn't a traditional aspect of online gaming, other gaming companies like Microsoft and Nintendo are embracing it. But not Sony. Shawn Layden, the CEO and president of Sony Interactive Entertainment America, and Mark Cerny, the PS4 system architect, spoke at a Gamelab conference on Wednesday. At the conference a reporter from Eurogamer asked Layden about the cross-play issue. Here's how the exchange reportedly went down: Eurogamer: "I thought it was fascinating you talking about PlayStation 3 flying too close to the sun - your Icarus moment you called it, and then PlayStation 4 coming back to be more back to basics, to be more about the players. But there seems to be an issue at the moment, that Sony isn't listening to its players - or doesn't seem to be - and that's cross-play, Fortnite particularly. And I wondered if there were any plans to open it up? It seems to be Sony's not listening." Layden: "We're hearing it. We're looking at a lot of the possibilities. You can imagine that the circumstances around that affect a lot more than just one game. I'm confident we'll get to a solution which will be understood and accepted by our gaming community, while at the same time supporting our business." So while Layden says that Sony is looking into possibilities, it doesn't share any concrete plans or a timeline of when things will change. But the cross-play issue has been really frustrating to PS4 players. Ars Technica notes that unrelated tweets from the official PlayStation account are still filled with replies about cross-play. Sony's anti-cross-play stance results in inconveniences for PS4 players. For example, Fortnite players who have linked their accounts to the PS4 version (even if it was only once) aren't able to use their account on the Nintendo Switch. The opposite is also true: Nintendo Switch players can't log into their Fortnite account on PS4. Sony not allowing cross-play isn't due to technical reasons, it's a business decision. In 2016 the game developers behind Rocket League told IGN that it was ready to support cross-platform play, but was waiting on Sony to give them the go-ahead. That green light never came. Perhaps pressure from players, developers and other consoles will result in Sony adding cross-play for the PS4. While Sony admits that it's working on a solution, actions speak louder than words. Sony didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.