If MS somehow takes the market next "gen", would they be justified in blocking crossplay?

Sure.

If you're in the lead you can ignore your competition.

No it wouldn't be justified. I think whatever is best for gamers is the right decision, regardless of the front runner.

After all their whining this gen? No and they would be utter hypocrits.

Didn't Sony want it last gen and ms blocked or refused it. Swings and roundabouts.

Blocking crossplay is dumb regardless of who is doing it.

@robert_sparkes: hence why i said there is a repeating cycle each gen where the lead in the market, blocks it.

Question is if it would be okay for MS to block it next gen, if they get back into gear and have a decent part of the market at the time.

As the business or as the consumer?

As the business it might make sense.

As the consumer, of course we wouldn't see it as a good thing

I am not sure how its beneficial as a business move especially with the current state of content and technology.

lol thanks for this.

On Topic:

Of course they would be justified to block.

Only if their XBOX fans demanded it should MS even listen to suggestions about doing something that's not beneficial to their business.

It's the reason why they blocked cross play last gen...and the reason why they are crying about it this gen. MS would NOT be asking for crossplay if they were the current market leaders or even running close with Sony, FACTS!

No, and I doubt they would. A precedent has been set. Sony fucked up royally with Fortnite, but it's their decision to make. The internet backlash sets a precedent.

@Pedro: if they believe that it "encourages" more people to buy the version for their system / use their online platform than they will lose due to consumer anger, then it's a net win for them. That's got to be Sony's calculation right now. It's the opposite for the companies with half as much market share or less - for them, opening their platform up is beneficial because they can say "we don't need the biggest user base; it's ok if your friend bought a different system, if you buy for our platform you can play with other platforms too!"

They'll say they can't do it and make up some technical excuse and their fanatical fans in gaming and the press would totally be okay with it. That's why it shouldn't even be brought up.

How do you think this problem was discovered? By an Xbox fan who so happen to have PSN account and did this test on the Switch just to make Sony look bad. Is that what you believe?

Also stop with the nonsense of MS asking for crossplay. This issue wasn't brought up because of the lack of crossplay with Sony but accounts being locked to the PS4 if gamers try using the linked account on the Switch.

No they wouldn’t. I don’t think that allowing for crossplay with competing platforms would be detrimental to the platform in the lead. To me it seems silly to think that the leading platform would lose ground for allowing crossplay.

Blocking crossplay business-wise makes sense because it makes most people if they want to play with friends, they need to buy that console

So if MS by some miracle get´s to be leader next console gen, they can block crossplay all they want.

MS has blocked it before and I'm sure they will block it again if they are in a position to do so.

The only reason they are for crossplay right now is that it benefits them now with their mediocre install base.

How many console gamers at this stage in the game would actually do that? Not that you have answer but my point is that's rather petty argument for Sony to make.

I doubt MS wants to go down the road Sony is after the Fortnite Backlash. Going forward, MS message has been crossplay. MS peeps are always talking about crossplay. I highly doubt MS will make the mistake that Sony is currently.

no way phil would do that. that guy hates that shit with a passion.

I don't trust MS. :|

Meanwhile you still have to pay about 5 bucks a month to play fornite on xbox.

If xbox really cared about engagement and cross play they would port all of their games to the ps4.

And fornite on xbox would be free.

The worlds lucky i currently dont have social media. If i spend five mins on a meme it would be over lol

This. And from all the interviews I've seen with Phil Spencer on the subject over the last few days, he seems pretty determined/convinced that cross-platform play is the future. So I can't see MS doing the same thing if they "won next gen". At least while Phil is in charge.

Well, choosing your console because your friends have one is a pretty normal thing.

And as to Sony, well Sony is not doing anything Microsoft and Nintendo wouldn´t do.

Consider if Nintendo released their games as multi-plat. how many actual "Nintendo consoles" do you think it would sell, you can bet it would sell not even close to what it does now. Companies do consider the impact at their bottom line, after all, they are not making games, to not make a profit.

Consumers would not like that...

LMAO this whole crossplay non-sense was brought up waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay before Fortnite just stop your pathetic argument attempt right there.

Crossplay will become more and more common. Eventually, Sony will cave to the pressure and jump on board as well. It is inevitable.

That's fine when PLAYSTATION fans demand the feature then that's when Sony will try to make a move to implement it, but as long as it's mainly players from outside of the PlayStation community Sony could give less than 2 F's.

Sony fans have friends on other platforms and already want this. Like I said, it will happen eventually. Sony will look more and more like the bad guy as this becomes more common. The PS platform will look less desirable to consumers and Sony will adopt crossplay.

No. Nothing justifies being a dick. It doesn't benefit us in anyway so why would any of us be for it?

Why would they do that, Sony still sells on the exclusives not the few "crossplays" , Fortnite is a fad like Rockey league and Pubg and before you know it, the next fad will be around and no one remembers the "cross play"

@Jacanuk: So, all the sports titles, racing games, MP shooters, etc. are just fads too? Come on man, you have to look at the big picture. It will happen.

A dick move is a dick move...there's no justifying it. :P

Nope, but there is a difference between the two, it´s like with League, heroes and DOTA, while it still has it´s audience and have big events, mainly because of Esports, it´s spotlight has yielded to battle-royal games and as anything the players grow up and the kids who flock to it today will have forgotten it tomorrow.

It doesn't matter if those games are fads or not, there will always be mutliplayer games where the fanbase wants crossplay.

look at all the butthurt cows answering yes on this poll. shows you who the real pathetic fanbase is on this site.

Well MS doesn't have a good track record...

Dropped core to go upwards of 60% casual with Kinect in 2009

Decided to change the industry on their own with Xbone and promptly got knocked the **** out.

I have little faith MS will fight for the gamer as SONY, current gen 8 console leader has.

Why cant a big developer/publisher just stipulate in their next game that crossplay MUST happen or we wont release on your system?

Like Rockstar, Ubisoft, EA games, EA sports, Activision/Blizzard etc.

You can imagine the backlash if the next FIFA or something didn't release on a platform because they didn't want crossplay.

Yes, market leader shouldn't reward losing competitors with its player base. Crossplay is a courtesy that primarily benefits the loser. Blocking it is a complete dick move but a justifiable one, if you want a bigger player pool sell more...

@GTR12: 80 million PS4s out there, that's a lot of potential sales. Not worth refusing to release your game on PS4.

LMAO @ the Sony bots. Grow some stones you anti-consumer freaks. Who cares what MS or Nintendo said or did before? It's crap behaviour period...in the past, the present, and future.

Like the nonsense above talking about losers benefiting. Wake up, all consumers potentially benefit from cross-play.

Nope. I think they have been fed a slice of humble pie this gen and will still allow it. I think Sony says no either way.

You know, when you read a book or watch a movie or play a game where it's a dystopian near-future where capitalism has truly gone crazy and run amok and ruined the world, environment, and society....

... it's because of situations like this, of fanboys saying "It's SONY's/MS's/etc right to shit on the customer!"

Ugh...

That would be suicide. If there are 30 million customers on XBOX and 30 millions customers on PS4, you're not going to give up half (or more) of your potential profit just to make a point.

Game developer would be like "We demand crossplay or else!" and the console dev would be like "Or else what? Wait, no don't say it. You're next ten games won't get published on our system. Don't threaten us again"

The only logical solution is to migrate to the only truly open platform out there, which is of course PC :P and let consoles stagnate and die, or adapt and realize they've been greedy whores.

If Phil is still in charge, they won’t block it. Phil on Giant Bombs after hours stream the other day explained his stance. It was something along the lines of, “My kid should be able to play a game with your kid regardless of the the platform they are on.” Morally that is a great answer, but it’s easier to go that route when you’re likely going to end this gen in 3rd. But he’s right. Most consumers only buy one console and I don’t think it will hurt overall sales numbers to allow crossplay.

Crossplay..... who gives a shit.....you're just trading one set of whiny bitch kids for another set.

We've got on fine without it for years in the console arena and PC hasn't done too bad without it either.