PlayStation’s Shawn Layden talks about recent Cross-Play controversy

As Eurogamer reports, during a Gamelab conference in Spain, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Shawn Layden has addressed the controversial state of Cross-Play in the PlayStation ecosystem. Layden stated the company is aware of concerns without clear admission that the hurdles will be lifted.

PlayStation users worldwide have been criticizing Sony for a while now that they weren’t able to play third-party multi-platform games with users on differing consoles, like the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. But it were the juggernauts of current gaming landscape Fortnite and Minecraft which really pushed the topic into greater public attention.

Unexpectedly, it was Nintendo who fired proverbial shots at Sony with their Minecraft Cross-Play Trailer last week. Japan’s hottest handheld manufacturer partnered up with the third big player in the console wars Microsoft and showed off Cross-Play ability among Xbox One/Windows Store and Nintendo Minecraft players. A rare sight to see but a comprehensible move by the two, since Sony is the pack-leader in terms of sales and success.

The pressure put on Sony quickly increased after one of the currently most popular games, Fortnite also was hindered of universal Cross-Play by Sony policy and furthermore locked characters on Sony’s platform. It must have, since the president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Shawn Layden had to chime in. At a Gamelab conference Layden and technical mastermind behind the PlayStation 4, Mark Cerny were holding a presentation about the legacy of PlayStation when a journalist from Eurogamer asked the CEO about the Cross-Play controversy. Layden response was not the revelation fans hoped for but showed signs of hope.

Indeed, the PlayStation platform at the moment has a comfortable lead to their adversaries, with a more than healthy player base but the policy of restricted Cross-Play Sony is currently adhering to, is a more ideological issue rather than a practical one. Murmurs across the internet of arrogant Sony being back and only thinking of upholding a profitable walled garden ecosystem do hurt the image of the platform holder.

It’s hard to say how much Sony’s current stance on Cross-Play will affect them negatively in the near and far future but according to Ex-Sony developer and John Smedley, “… when I was at Sony, the stated reason internally for this was money. They didn’t like someone buying something on an Xbox and it being used on a Playstation. simple as that. Dumb reason, but there it is.”

But Smedley also showed that there is a way how the issue could be solved to all players’ advantage by saying “If we keep the pressure up this problem goes away”. And it looks like unhappy users across the internet are following his advice. It will be interesting to see how Sony will react to more pressure.