Sony CEO Conceitedly Bashes Fortnite Cross-Play Citing PS4 Superiority
It seems ridiculous that in this day and age of video gaming, cross-play support isn't a standard feature across the board. Things have improved, sure, but there is still a long way to go. One of the holdouts is Sony, and if you were hoping the company would change its mind in the wake of increased pressure, you're going to be disappointed. Cross-play just isn't something Sony feels compelled to promote at this point.
The reason for this is almost definitely financial, though you won't hear Sony say that directly. Instead, Sony's new chief executive officer Kenichiro Yoshida emphasized at IFA 2018 that the PlayStation 4 offers the best experience for gamers, the insinuation being that it is somehow beneficial to PS4 players to balk at the idea of cross-play.
"On cross-platform, our way of thinking is always that PlayStation is the best place to play," Yoshido said, according to Independent. "Fortnite, I believe, partnered with PlayStation 4 is the best experience for users, that's our belief."
In the same breath, Yoshida essentially acknowledges that it is not a technical barrier that prevents Sony from enabling cross-play more broadly. "But actually, we already opened some games as cross-platform with PC and some others, so we decide based on what is the best user experience. That is our way of thinking for cross-platform," Yoshida added.
The topic is drawing increased attention because of the popularity of Fortnite. It's available on practically every platform, including the Switch and more traditional mobile devices (iOS and Android), and gamers want, they can play against each other regardless of platform. That is, unless we're talking about the PS4.
While Sony won't come out and say this is really just a dumb money grab, one of its former execs left little doubt.
"BTW when I was at Sony, the stated reason internally for this was money. 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," John Smedley, former chief of Sony Online Entertainment, stated on Twitter (the post has since been removed).
Like it or not, Sony has drawn a hard line in the sand and is not willing to cross it.
