Xbox head Phil Spencer addresses Sony’s safety concern for cross-play

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This week was another example of battling giants as Microsoft and Sony went back and forth about the accessibility of cross-play. The topic rose up because of Minecraft’s recent announcement to be available across mobile, console, and PC editions as a unified video game. PlayStation was noticeably removed from the list of devices.

Despite a Microsoft spokesperson stating that the two were still in discussions about how to move forward to meet Sony’s needs, head of PlayStation marketing Jim Ryan told Eurogamer that Minecraft’s younger audience brought up a lot of safety concerns.

“Minecraft – the demographic playing that, you know as well as I do, it’s all ages but it’s also very young. We have a contract with the people who go online with us, that we look after them and they are within the PlayStation curated universe. Exposing what in many cases are children to external influences we have no ability to manage or look after, it’s something we have to think about very carefully.”


“There is no live conversation ongoing at the moment,” he clarified, noting that even though the deal isn’t set in stone, Sony had done it before and would likely continue its stance.

Minecraft players aren’t the only ones suffering without cross-play on the PlayStation 4. Rocket League, a mixup between soccer and racing, also wanted to extend its game as a cross-network video game. “The honest answer is PlayStation has not yet granted us permission,” VP Jeremy Dunham of Psyonix clarified to Polygon earlier this week. They even went so far as to jump through hoops to meet Microsoft’s ‘complex requirements’, but Sony has still refused to budge.

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Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: https://www.onmsft.com/news/xbox-head-phil-spencer-addresses-sonys-safety-concern-for-cross-play

Comments

"Xbox head Phil Spencer addresses Sony’s safety concern for cross-play" :: Login/Create an Account :: 13 comments

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TOXICPosted:

GrandmaArchy I don't see anything in this article involving Phil Spencer. What click bait is this?


Yeah his name in the title lmao.

SpartanPosted:

Skates Minecraft definitely has some really young players and there's some weird people out there that prey on little kids.
Sadly true, however it's not like PlayStation is any safer then other online gaming communities

MajPosted:

AFI Sounds like a lame excuse to back out of the whole ordeal and stay "Solo". Considering they were all for it a few months ago when the subject was brought up with Rocket League.


I agree. The risks that there putting across are still there when cross-play isn't in the picture.

SkatesPosted:

Minecraft definitely has some really young players and there's some weird people out there that prey on little kids.

RyokoPosted:

Sounds like a lame excuse to back out of the whole ordeal and stay "Solo". Considering they were all for it a few months ago when the subject was brought up with Rocket League.

partyrockPosted:

FourStar
kerrry Interesting stance from ps4, wonder if they will ever go through with it, I feel more people might buy ps4 if they do is since everyone can play with everyone on the non exclusives.


Maybe Sony is worried that it might be the other way round and more people buy Xbox or Nintendo Switches


or maybe Sony doesn't want to get screwed because it would be easier for a security breach and they wouldn't be able to protect their consumers from people on other systems

FourStarPosted:

kerrry Interesting stance from ps4, wonder if they will ever go through with it, I feel more people might buy ps4 if they do is since everyone can play with everyone on the non exclusives.


Maybe Sony is worried that it might be the other way round and more people buy Xbox or Nintendo Switches

k3rryPosted:

Interesting stance from ps4, wonder if they will ever go through with it, I feel more people might buy ps4 if they do is since everyone can play with everyone on the non exclusives.

SwiftPosted:

GrandmaArchy I don't see anything in this article involving Phil Spencer. What click bait is this?


Because whoever submitted this article decided to cut it out.

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer addressed Sonys concerns of Microsofts safety policy according to an interview provided by GiantBomb (via Polygon.) That doesnt seem healthy for anyone, Spencer remarked, clearly surprised that Sony felt Minecraft players safe with the cross-play system. He went on:

We take the safety of Xbox Live, of our players across all of our games inside of Minecraft, obviously an incredibly important part of that its incredibly important to our team, Spencer told Giant Bomb. We would never put Minecraft in a place where we felt like [] we werent keeping our players safe.


I dont know why when copying the article they decided to cut the part regarding the title.

GrandmaArchyPosted:

I don't see anything in this article involving Phil Spencer. What click bait is this?