Phil will say whatever people want to hear as long as Xbox isn't selling so hot.
Perhaps, but it arguably isn't just lip service. The guy has been about as responsive to the consumer as you can possibly hope for from a high-level executive, and has mostly followed through on what he's talked about wanting to do with Xbox. While I don't doubt that a large part of Spencer's motivation here is 1) an effort to somewhat neuter Sony's console sales advantage, and 2) hopefully earn back some goodwill with gamers in the process, I do believe that he genuinely wants to do this because it would be better for gaming on the whole. And if openly stating his support of the idea highlights that Sony is the one preventing this from happening and puts them in a negative light, all the better for MS.
FWIW, I totally get why Sony doesn't want this. What I don't get is why Sony seemingly gets a free pass from the gaming community on this kind of stuff. Are people really still that butthurt about the previous Xbox regime's missteps? It's like Sony gets to have their cake and eat it, too. Everyone fawned over the PS4 for being the slightly more powerful console (which didn't really manifest meaningfully at all) and tolerated what was basically three years of the console having little to nothing in the way of exclusives outside of Bloodborne, while completely ignoring the Xbox One as it put out some great exclusives like Titanfall, Sunset Overdrive, multiple Forzas, Halo, Gears, etc. Then Sony finally gets their first-party shit together about this time last year, and everyone lauds them endlessly for it, which is all well and good. Meanwhile, Xbox, responding to the demonstrated consumer love of "power", creates a fucking beast of a console with a significant power upgrade over any console out there, and suddenly the refrain from gamers is "but where are the exclusives?"
I'm encouraged by the Xbox One X's reported preorder numbers, so hopefully it's simply a vocal minority of folks talking in circles to try and rationalize why they should continue to hate Xbox now for offering what sold them on a PS4, while now championing the importance of first-party content they didn't give a fuck about for years. Oh yeah, and the racing game genre doesn't exist, which is why it doesn't matter that there have been four (probably soon to be five) great Forza games before Sony could put out one quality first-party racing game. And the one Sony wants people to get excited about is a demo that they're now pretending is a full game because they apparently told Polyphony to put something out within four fucking years of the PS4 launching. It features a car list as paltry as you'd expect, and all indications are that it will not stack up against several games out there when it launches. You know, because first-party shit is so important, except when it isn't.
I digress, but the reality is that the technology for cross-play is there, Microsoft is on record multiple times saying they're willing to do it, and Sony is refusing. You can understand Sony's reticence all you want (I do as well), but they deserve to be ripped for not allowing this to happen. I guaran-fucking-tee if the shoe was on the other foot and MS was pulling this shit, e-torches would be out everywhere with indignant gamers proclaiming how anti-consumer MS is. To the OP's question, I think most developers are tactful enough to not call out Sony on it, and it's not really their responsibility to, IMO. It's our responsibility as gamers, and I'd love for more people to start holding Sony to their b.s. Criticize Sony's lack of exclusives from 2013-2016 and continued failure in the racing genre, just as the lack of upcoming Xbox first-party stuff is criticized. Criticize Sony for the fact that they'll soon have a weaker console, just as the Xbox was when that was true of it. Criticize Sony for anti-consumer practices in disallowing cross-play just like the Xbox "no used games" refrain. Hold them to the same standard, and we're all better off.
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