For the longest time, it appeared that dreams of legitimate Crossplay between the Microsoft Xbox One and Sony Playstation 4 was little more than a dream. The two companies have fought a rather bitter war over the last decade, though it appears an armistice might be on the horizon. At this year's Gamescom, Microsoft has made it clear that they are willing to thaw the cold war that has hampered both companies and work with Sony in order to bring legitimate crossplay to both consoles.
Gamers who just ran out to their nearest liquor store in order to get a bottle of champaign need to hold their horses just a little bit.
While GameReactor managed to get a very promising quote from a Microsoft representative, the prospects of a deal are pretty one sided. "Absolutely, yeah. We're talking to Sony [about crossplay], we do partner with them on "Minecraft" and of course we would like to enable them to be part of that; one community, to unite gamers. So we're talking to them and we're hopeful that they'll be supportive of it."
The thing to pay attention to in that quote is that there isn't any indication that Sony is moving to meet Microsoft halfway. No one seems to know exactly what Sony wants to do when it comes to that level of cooperation with its biggest rival.
Microsoft wants to reshape the gaming world
Crossplay would be a big deal to both console companies but it would certainly be a bigger deal for Sony.
Microsoft has already offered crossplay on a couple of its games, most notably "Rocket League." That crossplay works between the PC and the Xbox One. Allowing players from the PS4 would just be icing on the cake. There are plenty of other games that would benefit big time from cooperation between the two consoles. Now we'll just have to wait and see whether Sony is comfortable sharing the spotlight the PS4 has had all by itself for so long.
That is the real danger of Sony working out this deal with Microsoft. The PS4 has been winning the console wars rather handily. There are going to be some who wonder if that win is as big if they allow this partnership.
The games are there for great crossplay
One game that would stand out as perfect for the kind of crossplay Microsoft is looking for is a game that the Xbox One makers might not want to share.
"Player Unknown's Battlegrounds" is coming exclusively to the Xbox One. Microsoft has not said whether they have exclusivity in perpetuity. Sony would be smart to make that a front and center issue of talks when it comes crossplay.
