Cross-Platform Play Between Xbox And PlayStation Needs To Happen

Fortnite has become a gaming sensation that has brought friends together to munch on snacks and stay up until 2 A.M. while playing on whatever console they own. Just look at what Drake did when he joined professional gamer Ninja and they had 635,000 people just watching them play the game. It’s a sensation.

 

Recently, cross-platform play has become available for Fortnite, allowing people on different devices to play together…except between Xbox and PlayStation.

 

Cross-play for Fortnite works between Xbox One, PC, iOS, and Android together, and it works with PS4, PC, iOS, and Android together. But it doesn’t work between Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

 

This is the case for all games that have cross-platform play: Xbox and PS4 users cannot play together.

 

Many people are lucky enough to have enough friends that they know people on both Microsoft’s main console and Sony’s main console. Right now, they aren’t able to play with all their friends unless they purchase both consoles, which runs you over $500. That’s just the price of the consoles, and it doesn’t consider games (and extra controllers and accessories).

 

I would like to think about the kids in this instance, as they shouldn’t need to buy (or have their parents buy) two pricey gaming consoles just so they can play with all of their friends.

 

But just in general, it would be really great to be able to play with a larger pool of players across Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. There would be some things to be worked out including terms of service for the use of Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, but let’s be real: that would not be a huge issue to overcome after they already did it among other consoles.

 

Whether it’s Call of Duty, NBA 2K, FIFA, Fortnite, or any number of games, it’s hard to make an argument against everyone being able to play together. Microsoft apparently wants it to happen.

 

Me 2.

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) March 10, 2018

 

That’s Xbox head Phil Spencer, who probably wouldn’t be tweeting that if Microsoft was against cross-platform play. In a Microsoft statement to Kotaku, the company basically pointed the finger at Sony for not making it happen for gamers. Considering the response from Fortnite itself:

 

We 3!

— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) March 11, 2018

 

…and it looks like Sony simply has no desire to work with Microsoft on cross-platform gaming.

 

Yeah, Sony is selling more consoles than Microsoft is, and that could be the reason they don’t want to do cross-platform play with their biggest rival.

 

But it’s time.

 

Like Fortnite has brought people together to game like days past, it’s time for Microsoft and Sony to come together and give the people what they want.