Xbox Boss Responds To Sony's New Cross-Play Statement

Sony's new overall CEO, Kenichiro Yoshida, recently made controversial comments about cross-play, and now an Xbox executive has responded. Xbox engineering lead Mike Ybarra said on Twitter that Sony "still isn't listening to gamers" about the cross-play situation.

"[Sony still] isn't listening to gamers," Ybarra said. "All games should be cross-play and progression with the right input flexibility and gamer options."

After someone pointed out to Ybarra said Sony's PS4 has been outselling the Xbox One for a long time, Ybarra himself pointed out that Microsoft operates in the console and Windows PC space which expands its gaming footprint significantly. He also suggested that Sony is doing a disservice to its users by not supporting cross-play.

"We run Windows and Console," Ybarra said. "Larger gaming audience who wants to play together. Gaming is diverse, if you only serve to bring joy to part of an audience then you are behind in many, many ways."

Going back with what Yoshida said, he spoke at the IFA conference in Berlin recently and suggested that Sony doesn't allow cross-play because PS4 is the "best place to play."

"On cross-platform, our way of thinking is always that PlayStation is the best place to play. Fortnite, I believe, partnered with PlayStation 4 is the best experience for users, that's our belief," Yoshida said, according to The Independent.

Yoshida pointed out that Sony supports cross-play between PS4 and PC, and that going forward the company will "decide based on what is the best user experience."

He added that he believes competition with Xbox and Nintendo is "always good." Yoshida became Sony's CEO earlier this year after longtime CEO Kazuo Hirai stepped down.

Going back to Ybarra and Xbox, someone asked for Ybarra to explain why Microsoft requires a paid Xbox Live Gold membership for some free-to-play games and betas while Sony does not. He did not respond.

Games like Rocket League, Fortnite, and Minecraft support cross-play between Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, but not PlayStation 4. Sony said a while back that it's confident it will find a solution about cross-play that satisfies gamers and meets businesses considerations at the same time. As of yet, Sony has yet to say anything more.

For more on the cross-play situation, check out GameSpot's feature video embedded above.