Sony Vs The World UPDATED

You will remember a few years ago when Rocket League made its way onto the X-Box One platform the developers, Psyonix, were asked about cross play between the consoles and PC.

We’re actively working on cross-platform party support for a 2018 release.

When interviewed at last year's E3, Vice President of Psyonix Jeremy Dunham said.

I think without cross-network play you’re almost holding back the advancement of games in a way.

With its reveal on the Nintendo Switch, Rocket League is now cross play between the X-Box 1, PC, and Nintendo Switch platforms.

But where is the PS4 in all of this? No where to be found. Psyonix has continued to say that they are in talks with Sony about cross platform play between all of the platforms. But as of this writing, PS4 players can only play against PC players.

As for Sony's side of this argument? Jim Ryan, head of global sales and marketing for Playstation in his attempt to defend Sony's decision on not allowing cross play.

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.

Which is fine, except Nintendo of all company's, with their "family friendly" image, is allowing cross platform play between all consoles.

Phil Spencer, Xbox chief wasn't too happy with what Jim Ryan had to say.

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

Microsoft has said numerous times that they keep reaching out to Sony to allow cross platform play with Pysonix them self saying that if Sony gave the thumbs up for cross play, it would be up and running in an hour.

Epic games them self has shown how easy it was. Last year, for a brief moment in time, Fortnite had crossplay enabled between PSN and X-Box Live members. It was discovered by a Reddit user. A player by the name of "PRE_-CISION-_" was among the final 5 survives when he was killed by somebody with a pretty unusual name. He thought it was a bug, so he searched for this player on PSN and came up with nothing. Then he decided that he would boot up his X-Box One and look for the player there and bingo. He had found him.

See, PSN doesn't allow spaces in their usernames, but X-Box Live does. The user in question thought maybe Sony rolled back their decision on cross play, but to no avail. Within 30 minutes it was back to the way it was.

When asked on Twitter, Phil Spencer was quoted as saying "I wished they kept it that way".

Sadly, the saga is continuing.

Fortnite, the Epic created "taking the world by storm" battle royal game is now on the Nintendo Switch. Rumored for a while now, and finally confirmed at E3 over the weekend.

With its release, comes the topic of cross platform play. It has been confirmed to be cross play between X-Box 1, PC, and mobile devices. And once again, Sony is being stubborn about allowing cross play on their platform. But this time, they have taken it a step too far.

With Fortnite, you need an Epic's game login, much is the way of 3rd party games. Its rather easy and you can create an Epic account right in the game itself. Email address and password is all thats needed.

However, if you created that account on the PS4, and want to play using that account on your Nintendo Switch you will lose everything you have done. See, when you create that account on the PS4 or link that account to your PSN name, that account is now owned by Sony. It is not your account any more. Going back and forth between those two platforms is fine, but once you take that account to a platform that doesn't have cross play with the PS4. That is where the problem lies. The biggest issue, and the issue I personally have problems with.

Sony never told us. They never said "hey, if you use the Epic account that you have registered on the PS4 any where else. All of that stuff you got and the money you spent. Yeah its all gone". People have sunk money and time into these accounts and now they are being held hostage by Sony.

I get it, from a business stand point, I get it. Sony is winning. Why would they allow cross play? If you want to play with your friends, buy a PS4. But this is a new low. They're not just telling you "hey buy a PS4 if you want to play with your friends" they're now saying "if you're not planning on just gaming on the PS4, using a 3rd party account, then don't bother playing here at all". Sony is seizing these accounts and punishing its player base for wanting to us their 3rd party account on other platforms.

This is gross, and it needs to stop. Sony needs to be told that they can't do this to their player base. Sony should not be allowed to this. Players and developers need to step up and tell them that this isn't fair.

*Edit* Sony has finally replied to the constant questioning of why there is no cross play with the Switch.

In a statement released to the BBC, Sony stated;

We're always open to hearing what the PlayStation community is interested in to enhance their gaming experience, Fortnite is already a huge hit with PS4 fans, offering a true free-to-play experience so gamers can jump in and play online. With 79 million PS4s sold around the world and more than 80 million monthly active users on PlayStation Network, we've built a huge community of gamers who can play together on Fortnite and all online titles. We also offer Fortnite cross-play support with PC, Mac, iOS, and Android devices, expanding the opportunity for Fortnite fans on PS4 to play with even more gamers on other platforms.

They, however, did not comment on why they are locking players Epic accounts.

I will update this when and if more info is released.

Let your voices be heard, because at the end of the day. It isn't about profits or stock earnings, its about us. The players. If we want cross play, Sony should allow cross play.