Sony and PlayStation The Final Roadblock in Full Cross Platform Multiplayer

When Microsoft announced earlier this week that they would be bringing cross platform play to one of the world’s most popular games in Minecraft, everybody cheered.  Everybody, except PlayStation 4 owners who’ve seemingly been left out of the cross platform, cross play party in games like Minecraft and Rocket League.

Gamers on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC are going to be able to play certain games together in the very near future, but Sony has no plans of caving on their stance of cross platform online play.  Jim Ryan of Sony explained recently why Sony isn’t part of the party and doesn’t have any plans to be.

Ryan, claims that Sony’s stance on allowing PlayStation owners to play with Xbox, PC, or Nintendo Switch players is not a philosophical stance on cross platform play, rather a business decision.  Ryan falls back on being mindful of  “our responsibility to our install base.”  Claiming that in the instance of Minecraft the demographic skews very young, and that Sony needs to be held accountable for their experiences on the PlayStation Network.

Cross Platform Multiplayer took a big step forward this year with two of the industry’s most popular games in Rocket League and Minecraft but it doesn’t sound like Sony has any intention whatsoever to get on board.  According to Jim Ryan, “there is no live conversation ongoing at the moment,” regarding the company getting on board with cross platform play.

While the games might be two of the most popular, it is only a couple of games.  Perhaps if the industry pushes into the direction of full cross platform multiplayer experiences where players from all consoles play together they’ll be forced to change their stance.  In the meantime, you won’t be playing Minecraft or Rocket League on your PlayStation devices with anyone other than PlayStation owners.