'Minecraft' Cross-Platform Play: Microsoft Reports Success in Unifying Arrangement; Talks With Sony Still Ongoing
Microsoft has not given up on making "Minecraft" cross-platform play possible with the Sony console.
For the uninitiated, the Xbox developer rolled out an update back in June for the hit sandbox game that allows versions of the game on all platforms to share the same set of graphical capabilities and other features.
The Nintendo Switch is the latest to board the "Minecraft" cross-platform train. However, it looks like Sony is not following suit anytime soon.
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Despite this, the company is still open to bringing the game to the PlayStation 4. In fact, talks are being done to make it possible as revealed in a new "Better Together" post:
While we are thrilled to be able to confirm the new version of Minecraft is coming to Nintendo Switch, we are still in discussions with Sony about PlayStation and have nothing to confirm. We would love to work with Sony to bring players on PlayStation 4 into this ecosystem as well.
Even without Sony taking part in the "Minecraft" cross-platform play, Microsoft has seen success in the feature, as confirmed by Xbox vice president Mike Ybarra, who believes that it will only continue to thrive from here.
Our data shows people want larger multiplayer pools of people to play with and the choice to play together. This isn't going away.
Sony decided not to join the cross-platform party due to issues of player safety. PlayStation global sales and marketing head Jim Ryan explained to Eurogamer that doing so is practically "exposing what in many cases are children to external influences we have no ability to manage or look after."
Xbox head Phil Spencer appears to have taken offense over the remark as Ryan seems to have suggested that they are incapable of providing safety to "Minecraft" players. He told Giant Bomb via Polygon:
The fact that somebody would kind of make an assertion that somehow we're not keeping Minecraft players safe, I found — not only from a Microsoft perspective, but from a game industry perspective — like, I don't know why that has to become the dialogue. That doesn't seem healthy for anyone.
Sony earned criticism for what is being viewed as stubbornness especially since the company advocated for cross-platform play not long after it was made possible in "Minecraft."
