Xbox’s Aaron Greenberg Talks Cross-Platform, Remaining “Optimistic” About Sony

It seems most companies these days are open to the idea of having cross-platform play on their consoles. Most except Sony, that is. The creators of the PlayStation line haven't been so open to the idea of their players going up against others on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

But there's still hope that it'll one day see the benefit of such a feature, and one of those hopeful parties is Xbox Games marketing general manager Aaron Greenberg.

Speaking with Dualshockers, Greenberg explained that the company is still talking with Sony about the potential of cross-platform play, noting that "there are good guys over there," and that, while it may take a while to get it to work, it's a goal worth fighting for.

Sony does have to make a move eventually, but Microsoft has "built the bridge to connect gamers," and it all comes down to key decisions to getting it to happen. He didn't provide a timetable in terms of getting it done, but remains "optimistic" about doing so.

Greenberg did note that the company's relationship with Nintendo is much more solid, since both them and Microsoft are on the same page when it comes to cross-platform. The companies have paired with Minecraft-related content in the past, and they actually don't operate far from one another, since Nintendo's U.S. headquarters are close by to Microsoft's in Redmond.

In fact, Greenberg even noted that Xbox employees are "frankly all Nintendo fanboys," and the Nintendo Switch is much beloved in their office, as a "great platform to bring Minecraft to." He notes the cross-platform process with Nintendo has been "really easy," with very little resistance.

That spells good news for games like Rocket League, which will arrive on the Nintendo Switch in just a couple of weeks. Psyonix has been a developer that's been all about cross-platform play, and this release could be just the test it needs to see how well it works. It, too, is also working on convincing Sony to get that feature working, though it has faced an uphill battle in doing so, just like Microsoft.

We'll have to see what Sony eventually decides, but they are the last ones holding out on full-blown cross-platform play. Let's hope that gets resolved soon.