Microsoft really put itself out there back in March when it publicly invited the likes of Nintendo and Sony to join them in a brave new world of console cross play.
Sony did respond to the possibility of a holy matrimony between the PSN and Xbox Live, but their statement was vague and noncommittal – it had the air of someone trying to sneak away after a one night stand.
Xbox co-creator Ed Fries has now publicly called Sony out to respond to Microsoft’s ambitious invitation in a way that actually reveals what they intend to do.
Fries no longer works at Microsoft, but the subject came up during an excellent IGN interview in which he talked about the “great job” Xbox boss Phil Spencer is doing.
Fries described Spencer as a “great guy” with a “ton of loyalty”. Spencer was actually recruited by Fries back in the day, and the Xbox co-creator reckons the current Xbox head honcho is nailing it.
His praise for Spencer brought Fries to the subject of cross-platform play:
A great example is this opening of Xbox Live for cross-platform play. I hope that Sony is going to respond. It’s good to see some of the war kind of ramping down; more respect and cooperation between those two groups. I’m very optimistic for the future of both companies.
Psyonix’s excellent Rocket League could end up being the first game to support play across both Xbox Live and PSN. The fast paced rocket car/sports game actually has everything in place that it needs to make the dream work – the only thing holding it back is politics
Hopefully Sony come forward sooner rather than later with an actual answer, so we can all move on with our lives one way or the other.
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.