At E3 2017, Microsoft announced cross-network play for PC, Switch, and Xbox One was coming to Minecraft. Soon afterwards, Nintendo announced that Rocket League will be coming to the Switch, once more bringing cross-network play between PC, Switch, and Xbox One.

When Rocket League’s developer-publisher, Psyonix, was asked about the absence of the PS4 from that list, Jeremy Dunham, VP of publishing for the company, said “the honest answer is PlayStation has not yet granted us permission”. With Psyonix keen to allow cross-platform play to maximize their player base and allow players to battle their friends at explosive motorsport soccer, regardless of their home gaming console, Sony seems to be the only barrier.

Rocket League is coming to Nintendo Switch later this year

Defending their decision, Jim Ryan, Head of Global Sales and Marketing for Sony Interactive Entertainment, said that the company don’t have “a profound political stance… against [crossplay].” However, he did cite external influences to children without the ability for it to be managed by the “PlayStation curated universe” as reasoning for additional caution around the issue of crossplay, and its being left out of PlayStation systems at this time.

While he claims that “[Sony] have no philosophical stance against crossplay at all”, Ryan did also confirm that, with regards to the issue, “there is no live conversation going on at the moment”.

Do you have any thoughts on the issue of cross-network play? Is Sony being intentionally difficult? Let us know in the comments section below.