This year’s E3 week wasn’t exactly a great one for Sony. After what many saw as a lackluster presentation, the company found itself embroiled in controversy involving Epic Game’s Fortnite, and subsequently released a statement that only resulted in further criticism.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer and Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime have separately offered their thoughts on the kerfuffle. Both executives refrained from criticizing Sony and chalked up the issue to internal business decisions but Spencer did express some disappointment, arguing that such restrictions hamper growth.
“If you bought your son, your child, an Xbox, and I bought my child a PlayStation – and I’m just a parent, it’s their birthday, whatever – and the kids want to go play Fortnite and they all of a sudden go home and can’t play with each other, it doesn’t feel like it helps the consumers,” Spencer told Giant Bomb. “If it doesn’t help the developers and it doesn’t help the consumer, then it doesn’t feel like it helps to grow gaming to me.” However, he added that he’s not going to “judge anybody else making their decisions because they’ve got to run their business.”
Speaking separately to Polygon, Fils-Aime said that while Nintendo supports cross-play, “you have the other platform holders and what it is that they do.” He said that Nintendo has no influence over other console manufacturers and it is up to them to make their own decisions.
[Source: Polygon, Giant Bomb (YouTube) via Games Industry]
