Fortnite Had Cross-Play Between Xbox One and PS4 On Accident, Head of Xbox Wants It Back

The sandbox action/shooter/builder game from Epic Fortnite was discovered to allow players from the Xbox side of gaming to play online with their Playstation counterparts. Epic “patched” the “issue” quickly upon its discovery.

Twitter user @FreeDreamer asked Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, what he thought of the incident. The Xbox boss replied with a few simple words that I’m sure echo what most gamers feel in their hearts:

Aside from echoing the feelings of players, Spencer’s sentiment also lines up with Xbox’s position for a while now. Microsoft, the owner of Xbox, has been vocal about its support for Cross-Play functionality. Of course that started with Xbox-PC multiplayer via Windows 10, but recently they’ve been going even further. Rocket League, as reported by Gamespot, will soon support cross-play between Xbox One, PC, and the Nintendo Switch! Notably absent from the Rocket League cross-play party is Playstation.

Sony seems to be the holdout here — the console that just wants to play by itself. The rationale provided by the company boils down to wanting to protect the security and safety of their younger users, which is a noble goal. It makes sense, too. As soon as you open up your platform to cross-play, you lose end-to-end control of the way your users communicate and otherwise interact with others outside the walled garden of your console’s community features.

Here’s hoping that in the future, Sony finds a way to be comfortable opening up the floodgates of cross-platform multiplayer.

Originally published at polarcapstudios.com