Eurogamer have spoken to Shawn Layden, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment America, and asked about cross platform play, a topic that has been in the headlines thanks to the recent Fortnite kerfuffle.
Sony’s previous response was cold to say the least, waffling on about how brilliant PlayStation is, the basic message being ‘why would you want to play anywhere else, shush’. Shaun offered “one short statement” which seems very prepared, but is rather more optimistic than previous statements.
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.
I think the key line there is “supporting our business”, as market leader Sony doesn’t get very much from cross-platform play other kudos from players. The Sony accountants would have pointed out all the way the ways they could lose cash, such as someone buying in-game currency on Xbox and using it on PlayStation, and decided it’s a bad idea. The statement suggests they are looking at a work around for this sort of problem.
Source: Eurogamer
Avenger
A bog standard response to a question they were probably hoping wouldn’t be asked.
Stefan L
It’s a bog standard response, but it’s one that feels much, much, much more open than what they’ve said in the past. Then it was all “Won’t someone think of the children?” and “Actually, we already do cross-platform play, so there!” This feels like they might be changing something.