Former Sony employee John Smedley has detailed why the company won’t allow cross-platform play between the PS4 and other platforms like Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
Smedley is the former President of Daybreak Game Company, a company that was once named Sony Online Entertainment. Smedley remains in the industry as the General Manager of Amazon Game Studios.
“BTW when I was at Sony, the stated reason internally for this was money,” Smedley tweeted (though it’s since been deleted). “They didn’t like someone buying something on an Xbox and it being used on a Play[S]tation. Simple as that. Dumb reason, but there it is.”
Cross-platform play is a hot ticket right now, with titles like Fortnite, Rocket League and Minecraft trying to push for cross-platform play no matter the device you are on. The PS4 will allow for cross-platform play between it, mobile and PC, but not competitor’s consoles; because of that, there’s a disconnect between PS4 and Xbox One and PS4 and Switch.
A new Bedrock update for Minecraft on Nintendo Switch is now available, bringing that platform’s version of the game in line with that of Xbox One, PC and mobile devices. This means that players across all platforms (apart from PS4) can enjoy cross-platform play.
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