Sony Won't Do Crossplay Because It's Greedy, Obviously

Whatever goodwill Sony managed to garner at E3 was very quickly destroyed when almost immediately afterwards, it was discovered that they were holding people’s Fortnite accounts hostage, refusing to let people login to the game on the Switch if their account was linked with a PSN account. Needless to say, people have been super peeved about this little development, but Sony has thus far been fairly quiet about the issue, even though everyone is pointing their finger accusingly. Sure, they released a brief comment to the BBC which was basically a non-comment, saying:

“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.”

Which is about the worst thing they could say.

So hey, Sony won’t talk straight. But fortunately, there’s someone who will: John Smedley, former CEO of Sony Online Entertainment, who in a Tweet, said the following:

“btw 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.”

 
That’s not surprising in the slightest. And honestly, it’s not just a thing with Sony: six years ago, it was Microsoft who was holding out on crossplay, because at the time they were the number one console on the market. Now that Sony has taken that position, they’re blocking it for the very same reason. And it’s gross, but hey: as long as people really lay the pressure on Sony, it might just go away one day.

Just maybe.