Warning: This article contains images of molestation by Sony’s The Playroom users.
During an interview with Eurogamer, the infamous Sony executive Jim Ryan was grilled not only for their lacklustre E3 showing, but also the fact that Sony in their infinite wisdom decided that their users would be safer without cross-play between Xbox One and Nintendo Switch owners, amongst others.
Jim Ryan, arguably the most charismatic of all the PlayStation executives, told Eurogamer that they did not feel that it would do their player base, the 60 million so-called gamers who bought into the system, a service to let players from other platforms join them in games like Rocket League and Minecraft. The reasoning for this? Safety. Sony, of all people, started preaching about the safety of their users, and that’s rife with hypocrisy. Hacks? The Playroom child abuses? Domestic violence? Weapons? Remember them? Sony’s Jim Ryan didn’t utter a word when children were being abused and tortured on The Playroom but he’s against Minecraft in particular? That’s beyond ridiculous and downright disgusting.
Let’s turn back the clock to 2013 when The Playroom was announced. It quickly became apparent that the PlayStation Network was for all intents and purposes a place full of the people Nintendo was afraid of. The Playroom, the streaming game on PlayStation 4, which allowed people to use their Kinect-like camera to livestream gameplay while having a live feed of them in their living room, witnessed horrific acts. Let’s not even talk about the the hilarious double standards with so many gamers buying cameras right after complaining about it being included with the Xbox One and how it was an invasion of privacy.
This quickly turned into a vile cesspool of sex, harassment and children being terrorised by older men and women. Some even live streamed themselves having sex with possibly underage individuals. Twitch banned The Playroom from their network over these issues, and it seems that Sony has started cracking down on them since then…or so it seems since nobody really wants to talk about it anymore. It probably doesn’t generated many clicks. This makes the whole argument that Sony is trying to “keep their users safe” from the bad people on other platforms completely nonsensical since they, “the biggest gaming platform in the world”, are the biggest threat to safety for smaller platforms. The Playroom brought out the worst in people.
When Xbox 360 was the biggest and most popular platform, it became a meme that players on the platform would send out hilarious and sometimes dangerous threats after losing games. We never saw anything on the level of The Playroom and pedophilia on Xbox Live.
Let’s talk about security as a whole. Sony is known for the constant security breaches faced by PlayStation owners who dared enter their credit card details on PlayStation Network, the arguably inferior Xbox Live clone that has had its share of serious incidents in the past. Beyond that, Sony implemented better authentication recently, but it seems that this still doesn’t help, and Sony seems to care about this as much as the people who robbed you. No wonder the most popular gaming item on Amazon currently is vouchers for the PlayStation 4! People don’t trust the company enough to even enter their credit card details.
Jim Ryan can spew garbage until his eyes explode, but we all know that cross-play is an innovation that would bring all platforms together, and let gamers play with friends wherever they may be. However, it seems, that Sony would rather wall you in their platform, and like a petulant child, keep everything to themselves. It seems that their “safe” install base has been too busy buying mediocre experiences… and harassing children online to care about this feature. Sony might feel vindicated in their decision.
The Playroom user molesting his guest after possibly spiking her drink.
Unfortunately, it seems that PlayStation 4 owners enjoy being told what to do and what they deserve. It makes you wonder what is really happening on PlayStation Network with outlets like PlayStation Enthusiast thinking that it’s a “good thing” that women are over-sexualized and objectified. Sony is actually protecting Xbox One and Nintendo Switch users from certain members of their vile and toxic community, and we should thank them. So thank you Sony for not having child abuse, pedophilia, weapons and other horrendous acts on Microsoft’s and Nintendo’s online services.
Cross-play, which was announced for Rocket League and Minecraft, allows gamers on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS and Android to play together as if they’re on a unified platform. It just requires an Xbox Live sign-in. It’s clear that Sony is holding back gaming innovation, be it by blocking great gaming benefits like cross-play, or forcing their users to accept that EA Access is a “bad deal”, while their store is flooded with games like Life of Black Tiger and over-sexualized titles from Japan which objectify women. Sony’s Jim Ryan needs to stop his hypocrisy because he’s doing a lot of damage to the company’s image. However, he probably won’t given his history of disgusting and bizarre statements. Somehow he can remain quiet when people are savagely beating children on The Playroom but loves to badmouth Minecraft? I don’t even know what to say to that.
Dreyer was a regular ICXM contributor between 2016–2017, publishing 139 articles across opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news. Their work focused on hands-on reviews, platform commentary, and breaking-news reporting during the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative. They post on X as @dreyer_smit.