Just for perspective... (Gaming)

by narcogen , Andover, Massachusetts, Monday, March 14, 2016, 23:54 (3182 days ago) @ stabbim

Check it. Microsoft is claiming that they are now open to the idea of cross-platform play. Obviously, no real impact until Sony decides the same, but still... maybe not a total pipe dream anymore?

Here's the original MS article. Rocket League's apparently allowing play between XBone and Windows right now (not unheard of, but the article makes note of it), and the way the article's worded, it almost sounds like they might be willing to allow PS4 players on that very game, if Sony wants to do so? It's a little ambiguous what they mean there, but I found the idea interesting considering we had a very recent thread about that game and the PS4/XBone gulf.

...there are lots of nontechnical reasons why platform owners dislike this.

For instance, if Destiny had supported cross-platform play between the PS4 and Xbox One out of the box, I probably would not own an Xbox One. I was on the fence, and keeping my friends list kept me from leaving the platform.

That MS is open to this now is a concession that the fact that the old policyt has brought them as much value as it can (by converting as many 360 owners to Xbox One owners as possible) and/or that they are admitting to themselves that they are not going to catch up to Sony's installed base during this generation, and as the smaller platform, they tend to benefit asymmetrically from this, by solving matchmaking and player base issues on their own platform by supplementing it with players from the other platform.

It's always been within their power to allow, or perhaps even to coerce, compatibility between the Xbox and Windows, although attempts to date have not gone well, and they are financially disincentivized to do so; they get a cut of game sales on Xbox but on Windows they don't. So every player that opts for playing on Windows and knows they still get access to their friends on Xbox Live is making less revenue for MS.