Could PlayStation block their games from being played on future “Windows-based” Xbox hardware?

With Xbox handheld teases from Phil Spencer in recent interviews, to Windows Central’s reporting that the next generation of Xbox hardware has been greenlit, there’s been plenty of discussion about Microsoft’s future hardware plans, and that certainly shows no signs of slowing down. It’s come to a head this week, with a slightly different slant – with many gamers asking questions about PlayStation Games on Xbox. Would Sony block PlayStation PC games from being played on future “Windows-based” Xbox hardware?

It’s a debate we’ve seen raging across social media over the last couple of days, and everyone has an opinion on the matter. Let’s dig into what we know, based on reporting, history and more than a little conjecture. Before that of course, we need to talk about Xbox.

New Xbox Hardware

Microsoft themselves revealed earlier this year that they plan on combining “the best of Xbox and Windows together” for future hardware, including the growing handheld PC market. As reported by Windows Central, new hardware for the next generation has apparently been greenlit, ‘all the way up to CEO Satya Nadella.“

Sounds super exciting! Except, while we understand that Microsoft aims to bring Windows and Xbox closer than ever before and that they’ve said as much, we as of yet don’t know what that final form will actually take.

Will it play everything you currently own from Xbox – all the way back to the OG Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One and current generation hardware? Will it be a ‘best efforts’ sort of affair, with some games working and others…not so much?

This is all on Microsoft and Xbox to answer and solve, and one of the problems for them is the never-ending conjecture and theorising from outlets like ours, Xbox fans and the wider industry. It often leads to unrealistic expectations, and narratives that start to take on a life of their own. But hey, and I don’t mean this unkindly – it’s their problem.

So let’s have some fun and talk about the hot topic of the week. If future Xbox hardware is basically a PC, and PlayStation releases its games on PC…does that mean you’ll be able to play your PlayStation games on an Xbox?

Sony’s History of Platform Exclusivity

I think it’s fair to say it bluntly – Sony’s got prior form here. Only in recent years has the platform holder made moves to support PC platforms with its games, and even then it’s often way after they’ve released on their primary platform – the PlayStation console.

When cross-play became more and more normal, Sony resisted, holding back cross-play on PS4 for years, before finally relenting due to growing backlash. Sony even had the nerve to claim concerns about the protection of children when it came to Minecraft, which Xbox felt pretty strongly about. One quote from Gio Corsi (At the time, Sony’s Senior Director of Developer Relations) said something on cross-play that sort of encompasses Sony’s approach in a nutshell – “As you know, many companies are exploring this idea and not a single one can explain how cross-console play improves the PlayStation business.”

“Improves the PlayStation business.” There’s a fair amount of sentiment in that statement. They did find a way to achieve those improvements they were looking for eventually – per the Verge, it was “charging publishers a royalty whenever PlayStation players contribute more than a certain percentage to the bottom line of a cross platform game, in order to off-set the reduction in revenue“.

Will letting their games be played on a rival’s hardware – even if it’s effectively a PC – lead to more of that? I doubt Sony thinks so.

In reality, Sony has taken a very tentative approach to releasing its tentpole titles on PC. If it’s a single player release in a key Sony franchise, non-console players have had to wait anything from six months to two years for its PC debut.

With partner published titles like Helldivers 2, Sony saw wild success, releasing simultaneously on both PlayStation and PC. But Sony’s also landed in more than a bit of hot water with gamers, by insisting on implementing PSN account requirements for most of its titles, some of which were sold in regions where PSN isn’t even supported, effectively asking players to break the Terms of Service right out of the gate.

It’s still early days for Sony and its multiplatform journey, and it brings to mind stark reminders of when Xbox first took the plunge with games like Quantum Break and Sea of Thieves. Xbox console players were less than pleased, but over time, folks got over it. Will Sony fans have to go on the same journey? That remains to be seen.

Closed Doors and Open Windows

While Windows isn’t a completely open platform, it is far more open than a walled garden, console ecosystem. Users on PC can install software from anywhere, and don’t have to rely on a single storefront. Windows is hardware agnostic, and will run on PC hardware from any manufacturer and in turn allows users to modify game files, install 3rd party applications, mods and if a user wants to, bypass any DRM systems put in place.

If Sony make say, a Steam version of their games, it becomes a standard, Windows-based application. As such, it should be able to run on any Windows-based device that supports it. Sony have a lot of sway, but they can’t control where Steam, Epic or any consumer facing digital store make their storefront available. In turn, this would make it difficult – but not impossible – to impose any hardware-level restrictions on where a game can be installed and played.

It’s possible that Sony can try to enforce platform restrictions through DRM or Online Only Requirements. The PSN account requirements, as mentioned before for games like Helldivers 2 could be used in some way on this yet-to-be-fully defined hybrid PC-like-Xbox. If they successfully block PSN logins on whatever form new hardware from Xbox takes, it’s logical to assume the game won’t run.

A lot of folks point to services like GeForce NOW who famously turned on the ability for users to play whatever they they owned, but didn’t actually work out any deals with publishers first to make sure they were okay with that, meaning games were swiftly removed from the service. Publishers want to be paid?! Who knew!

This is a very different scenario than outright stopping a game from running natively on a device, and is more to do with licenses and permissions that NVIDIA didn’t have as a Streaming Provider.

Yet Xbox users can play PC versions of some PlayStation Games they own using services like Boosteroid. You need to own the game you want to play already, say via Steam, and you simply load up via Boosteroid and play through your Edge browser on your Xbox console.

Want to play Spiderman on your Xbox? Well, it works, and it’s possible right now – so maybe Sony won’t care all that much.

Is it Good for Sony?

This is where I’m purely basing things on my gut here, and that sentiment from a Sony Executive rings out once more – will it “Improve the PlayStation Business?” I’m willing to bet good money that Sony certainly won’t think so, and there in lies the rub.

They’ve made it very clear that PC gamers are secondary in their eyes to the console faithful, and consistently take a timed-exclusivity approach to PC releases for the majority of their games. If Xbox blurs the line between their PC and Console, Sony will likely believe they have a strong incentive to keep its PC games off the device.

The question is, will they take whatever steps they deem necessary to block an ‘Xbox-PC” from running standard PC-based applications, just because they can? Or will they adopt the attitude most publishers are taking nowadays – that more players, more sales and more money in the bank are a good thing, for their bottom line and the industry as a whole?

Honestly, I don’t know. With Microsoft published games taking the top pre-order spots in multiple regions on the PlayStation Store, maybe Sony will play ball when the next generation of Xbox hardware rolls around. Maybe they still believe in the ‘Console Wars’, and will do whatever they can to eliminate the competition. Either way, it’s going to be an interesting time in an industry that is undergoing significant change.