Microsoft Announces Cross-Network Play Feature That Could Include PSN

Written by Brandon Hofer on March 14, 2016

News: Microsoft has revealed that they are open to cross network play which means Xbox gamers could be playing against PlayStation gamers soon.

Over the years Xbox Live players have played with/against other Xbox Live players, while players on PSN only played others on PSN and so on and so forth. Now it looks like that might change as Microsoft has stated that they are open to cross network play. What does that mean exactly? That means I could be playing Call of Duty: Black Ops III on my Xbox One online against my friend who has the PS4 version. This also works with PC so, theoretically, I could be playing on Xbox One while I have one friend playing on PS4 and another one playing on Windows 10.

The only real catch here is that developers have to allow it to happen. They need to support this feature in their games and then once they do we will all be able to play with/against each other online. It should be noted though that as far as Xbox One is concerned, gamers will have the option to only play with other Xbox Live members, even if the game fully supports cross platform play so this isn’t a new feature that you are being forced to use.

This is something that gamers have been requesting for a while now and should expand the player pool exponentially for games. Say for example there is a vibrant community on PS4 playing Madden NFL 16 but the Xbox One community is a lot smaller and, therefore, it can be harder to find some games online. That wouldn’t matter anymore since that Xbox One player could potentially play against others who are playing the PS4 version. This gives new life to games, especially if they are older titles. I doubt this feature will be added retroactively to any games but in the future this could mean a longer shelf life for some games and, hopefully, it means that some game companies aren’t so quick about turning off servers for older titles.

To go along with this announcement Microsoft also revealed that Psyonix’s Rocket League will be one of the first games to take advantage of this new capability by enabling cross-network play between Xbox One and PC players, with an open invitation to Sony to have the PlayStation Network join in the fun along with other networks. It should be noted that PlayStation gamers have been playing with PC gamers in Rocket League for quite a while now but that Rocket League also came out on PS4 approximately a year before Xbox One.

What do you think of cross network play? Microsoft didn’t use to be open to the idea but now they have changed their mind. Do you think developers will support it? Do you think Sony will allow it and allow Xbox gamers to play with PlayStation gamers? Do you think PC gamers will want to play with console gamers?