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from the Damn-right-its-better-than-yours,-I-can-teach-you,-But-I-have-to-charge dept.
CNET:
Sony doesn't want you to play with your Xbox or Switch friends, I argued last June. We've known since 2016 that Sony is the only company standing in the way of buddies being able to team up across PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC, since there's no technological limitation.
And though Sony has since been shown up by Microsoft and Nintendo, and though Sony enraged the Fortnite community, and though Fallout developer Bethesda has badmouthed Sony about cross-play and threatened to hold another game hostage, and even though PlayStation America CEO Shawn Layden suggested Sony might have actually gotten the message...
...today, Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida reportedly told the press that his company generally doesn't believe in the idea of opening up the PlayStation to cross-platform multiplayer.
"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," he said, according to The Independent.
Previously: Sony Faces Growing 'Fortnite' Backlash At E3
Bethesda Clashes With Sony on PS4 Cross-Play, Changes Review Policy
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @04:23PM (1 child)
i agree that this is related to slaveware peddlers, but i don't think it's exclusive to capitalism as much as a closed business model, even if there are norms of what types of economic systems use what type of business models.
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Monday September 03 2018, @02:19PM
While that might be true, I think the important point is that the game is designed to make the players do this. Screaming at Sony for this is as pointless as yelling at a linebacker for sacking the quarterback - he's just doing his assigned job.
I don't think it's practical for the government to mandate open standards and federation everywhere, so I'm not asking for it. But for us, ourselves, and our friends we should have two rules to follow:
1. When it's practical, adopt the open source solution to your IT problems. The more open source, the better.
2. When that's not practical, be especially skeptical of the offerings from the biggest player in the market. Usually the lock-in that comes with their product has costs that outweigh the benefits of having one of the best products.