Following Microsoft’s big announcement that the Xbox One will be supporting cross platform play for other consoles, including PlayStation 4, Sony have now issued a response to Xbox’s proposed shared gaming Nirvana.
Sony’s response is pretty vague in truth. It seems they’re keeping an open mind regarding cross console functionality, but stopped short of actually mentioning Microsoft by name.
The statement (given to GameSpot) reads:
PlayStation has been supporting cross-platform play between PC on several software titles starting with Final Fantasy 11 on PS2 and PC back in 2002. We would be happy to have the conversation with any publishers or developers who are interested in cross platform play.
Considering this statement was given in response to a direct question about Microsoft’s news, it remains open to interpretation for now.
Are Sony already in discussions to team up PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, or will they stick to cross platform play between PlayStation and PC, leaving Xbox hanging?
The first Xbox game to utilise cross platform fun will be Rocket League, which will soon allow for Xbox One and PC owners to play each other. Of course, the PS4 version of Rocket League has always allowed gamers to play against Steam users – we just need PlayStation and Xbox to complete the circle now.
For now it seems the ball remains firmly in Sony’s court. The idea of connectivity between two rivals such as Sony and Microsoft might still seem crazy, but the reality looks like it’s getting closer every day.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.