Microsoft Hopeful Of More Crossplay Between Platforms
Microsoft has revealed how it is willing to work with other major players in the gaming industry to try and normalize crossplay between different platforms. The company wants to have a conversation with developers and service providers so that players can get the best experience possible.
Speaking to Game Reactor at Gamescon, Xbox head of marketing Aaron Greenberg revealed that the company was still talking to the likes of Sony about crossplay opportunities in games. “We’re talking to Sony, we do partner with them on Minecraft and of course we would like to enable them to be part of that; one community, to unite gamers. So we’re talking to them and we’re hopeful that they’ll be supportive of it.”
Meanwhile, vice president of Xbox, Mike Ybarra explained how Microsoft had an open invitation policy when it came to crossplay. The company is prepared to talk to any other publishers and developers about integrating other platforms into multiplayer experiences so that the entire industry can benefit. He cited how the Xbox team had already strived to include crossplay in as many of their own games as possible, allowing players on both Xbox One and PC to play together and how Psyonix had helped with their own title Rocket League.
“It’s more about gamer choice, more about making an IP on our platform last longer. I don’t care about where they play, I just want people to have fun playing games because that’s just better for the industry,” said Ybarra in an interview with VG247. “The demands of consumers and developers have changed. People are like, ‘we want all of our gamers in one multiplayer pool together, playing’.
“We totally agree with that. If any developer wants to have that conversation… Valve is right down the street from us, Nintendo is too – they’re like a block from us. We’re having these discussions as developers come up, and we’re completely open to that.
“I think Rocket League was the first developer that came to us saying ‘we want to make this onto everything’. At the time they weren’t on Switch, they are now, but they were saying let’s do this… we sat down and said absolutely, we should totally do that.”