 Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Outside the Box and today we're going to talk about some comments made by Phil Spencer who's been recently promoted as a member of the board over at Microsoft and he's still the head of Xbox and we're talking about cross play because it's a topic that just won't go away. We actually recently talked about it on our podcast and you can actually check out our podcast discussion with Eric myself and HMK the hype man himself up here but let's get into the new comments by Phil Spencer who seems to be recognizing some of the reasons that PlayStation isn't willing to work with Microsoft and Nintendo on cross play and why he doesn't agree with their stance. So let's get right into the exact quotes. Phil Spencer says this on cross play, we talk to Sony all the time. With Minecraft on PlayStation, we have to be one of the biggest games on their platform in terms of sales and gameplay. Same with Nintendo. The relationship with Nintendo on this front has been strong. They've been great supporters and we continue to collaborate with them. But I think Sony's view is different. They should talk about what their view is. So he's kind of calling Sony out saying hey, you obviously view things differently, you should come forward with it. They've kind of talked around the topic and he goes on to say this. I have a real struggle making comments about their motivation or timelines. I know there is a certain view that says if my friends have this console, they can't play with people who buy another console. That's a reason to go buy my console. I think people look at cross play and say it is better for gamers. If it's better for gamers, I have a hard time thinking why we shouldn't go do this. Especially when you're trying to make the gaming business a bigger business. Grow it, get more games, create more opportunity. Especially in the indie space. Actually, if you're creating an online indie game and you're going to create five shards of your game. The Steam version, the Xbox Live, PC, Xbox version, the PlayStation version. The Switch version creates hard matchmaking scenarios. We should help developers not make their lives more difficult. And this actually brings up a point that we brought up in the podcast about how cross play is beneficial for gamers. It's beneficial for developers. The only people that might view it as not beneficial to themselves are people like PlayStation who probably have the mindset that, hey, look, we don't have cross play with Xbox and Nintendo because if you want to play with your friends that own a PlayStation 4, you better come by a PlayStation 4. And they could take this stance and get away with it as they have so far because they are the market leaders. Now, some people might bring up the fact that Microsoft is saying this and really PlayStation doesn't want to work with Xbox Live. But that's already been debunked by now. Fortnite released and had cross play between Xbox One and PlayStation 4 happening day one. It was a mistake and was removed quickly after Sony caught wind of it. But notice it was after Sony caught wind. It had nothing to do with Xbox Live. Everything worked through the game itself. Xbox Live was not involved. Rocket League's gonna have cross play between PC Switch and Xbox One and it's not gonna include PlayStation 4 in there. It does not use Xbox Live. So again, like any excuse over Xbox Live is just an excuse. It's not really what's holding them up. What's holding them up is exactly what Phil Spencer said, that mentality that we need to hold back on allowing cross play to force people to buy our platform. And while I understand from a business perspective why that might feel like a good idea, that almost feels like an idea you would do if you're not the market leader. There's plenty of reasons to buy a PlayStation 4. I have a future episode coming up where I'm talking about exclusives and their importance to selling systems versus, if it's actually healthy for the gaming community to have exclusives. But when we're talking about things like cross play, we're talking about helping out gamers and developers. And basically you have the console provider, the gamers and the developers. And if something helps out two of the three, then you probably should do it. At this point, this attitude coming from Sony on this or their lack of proper responses, right? Back during E3 it was about protecting the children. Later, Shashita came out and said, hey look, it's just complicated, it's complex. The technologies are difficult and the conversations are difficult, which apparently they're not because Sony and Microsoft themselves have very little to do with whether a game can cross play or not. It's the developers wanting to do it and developing the technologies on their end and then flipping a switch. All Xbox, Microsoft, Nintendo, all these companies have to do is say, yep, you can do that. Obviously things get complicated in there, you know, like when Microsoft wants to use Xbox Live on Minecraft, which makes sense because they own Minecraft, it's their IP, they're obviously gonna want to use Xbox Live. If Nintendo had a cross play game, for some reason they released some other platforms, you know, say they brought Splatoon 2 over to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, they're obviously gonna want to use the Nintendo account system and that provides a whole extra layer of depth and concern that some people might have. But if you think about it, even when you go play Madden, right? I play Madden on Xbox One every year. You have Madden on Xbox One, Madden on PlayStation 4. When you play Madden between those two platforms, on both of them, regardless of if you're on the PlayStation network or the Xbox Live network, you have to create accounts with EA. So you could easily have all those EA accounts be able to play matches against each other. And I understand that there's gonna be competitive concerns, a game might have better frame rates on another platform, a game might have this, a game might have that. And I understand that there are performance differences that could lead to unfair advantages, but let consumers and developers worry about that. If developers have to dial back a game a little bit on one platform to make sure the performance matches across the board, then they will do that. Let the developers concern about that. Let the gamers worry about that. Don't let the platform holders really hold this whole thing hostage. And that's what it feels like is happening with Sony. Now, I'm tired of talking about cross-play. Just like I'm sure many people out there are tired of talking about loot boxes. That seems to be the hot topic now. You gotta talk about loot boxes. Are they good? Are they bad? Are they a gambling addiction? Are they good to have around children? Are they good to have in a $60 game? Should they only be in free games? Should they exist at all? Do loot boxes really hurt anything? It's an interesting conversation, just like cross-play is, but it's one that ultimately has no solution. One thing is clear about loot boxes. They're not going anywhere. They're here to stay, just like microtransactions and DLC, it's here to stay. Like it or not, they're not gonna go anywhere. Overwatch just made like a billion dollars in one year, primarily because of loot boxes. It's not heading anywhere. Cross-play is gonna be a topic that unfortunately isn't gonna go anywhere as long as there's still one company holding out. And that company is in a position of power. As the market leader, Sony can kind of do and say whatever they want. And this is one reason why you might say, oh, Nintendo didn't stop it because Nintendo's behind it. Xbox didn't stop it because Xbox's behind. And I think that argument is Bollocks as well. If you think about it, Sony builds their reputation with PlayStation around being for the gamers. But yet this decision to block cross-play isn't really for the gamers. It's a benefit to themselves. It goes against the reputation they have built up with PlayStation 1, 2, 3, and 4. Sony is heading down that path of when they're at the top, they like to be cocky as heck. And blocking cross-play is just another example of that cockiness. I hope for Sony's sake. I hope for PlayStation 4 gamers' sake and future PlayStation gamers, whether it be on another handheld system if they bring out like a Vita 2 or if it is on a PlayStation 5 or whatever is coming next after the PlayStation 4 Pro, that Sony opens the window to this ability to have cross-platform play. If you're willing to allow multi-platform games to be on your platform, why does cross-platform play matter? It doesn't have any impact on Sony. No one is buying a Sony platform to play FIFA with their friends. They're buying it for Uncharted and The Last of Us and the copious amount of games in there. I know there's a NAK2 come out recently, The Last Guardian, yada, yada, yada. The zillions of games that you are on that platform or why people are buying it combined with some people just care about power. And right now, until Xbox One X comes out, PlayStation 4 Pro is the most powerful box on the market. Anyways, folks, I am Nathaniel Ruffa-Jance from Nintendo Prime. You guys let me know what you think about this whole cross-play fiasco down in the comments below. Is this something that matters to you? I felt like this was a good topic for a new outside of the box, even though we've talked about this a few times this year, because the situation keeps getting more and more interesting and there's more and more pressure, especially from Microsoft here, being applied to Sony to finally do something about this. And do you think that maybe Microsoft shouldn't be saying these kind of things? Maybe they should be backing up and be like, look, they don't want to score a cross, but let's leave it alone. I honestly hope that Nintendo hops in as well personally and starts to push Sony as well. So you have it coming from all fronts, PC, Sony, and Microsoft all looking at Sony and being like, hey look, we need you, you know, Nintendo PC, Microsoft, we need you to stop being like this, stop being anti-consumer, start being anti-Indie developer and come on over to the side of light. I love the PlayStation platform. I love the Xbox platform. I love the Nintendo platform, most of all. And I love PC. See this thing back here? That's a pretty beefy PC gaming rig. I love it. I want us to all be able to play together without requiring someone to own every platform under the sun. Anyways, folks, I am Nathaniel Ruffalojens from Nintendo Prime. If you like this video, you know what to do. 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