Epic Games’ free-to-play survival game Fortnite recently made headlines when players discovered the game allowed PlayStation 4 and Xbox One users to play together. Though the cross-play functionality was apparently a mistake and Epic has since rectified it, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has now weighed in on the accidental breakthrough.

In response to a question on Twitter (via Polygon), Spencer reiterated his well-established support for cross-play between Xbox One and PlayStation 4, though in this case by expressing a very specific, slightly perplexing hope:

I would have liked to see them leave it on.

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) September 18, 2017

There’s a lot of ambiguity in that statement. Is Phil Spencer wishing for a world where Sony would have allowed Epic to leave cross-play functionality active? Or is he instead saying that Epic should have left the feature on regardless of what Sony said on the subject, and deal with whatever fallout might come later? I mean, Spencer seems like a pretty non-Machiavellian dude, so it’s probably the former, but it’s still fun to imagine him as some grand puppet master, stirring up mayhem in the hopes of forcing his rival’s hand.

For the time being, it appears the cross-play ball remains firmly in Sony’s court, though numerous developers have approached the platform holder to express a desire to enabling the feature. Should PlayStation ever sign on for cross-play, other games that would likely allow it include Rocket League, Friday the 13th, and Microsoft’s own Minecraft, which will soon allow cross-platform multiplayer between Xbox One, PC, and Switch.

Posted: Sep 19, 2017 7:52 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/xbox-boss-has-an-intriguing-opinion-on-fortnites-accidental-cross-play/