Despite having great games, and a significantly powerful console, the Playstation ecosystem does have major issues that gamers desperately want Sony to fix. While the great games, both exclusives, cross-platform titles and indies, go a long way in maintaining a healthy player base, both the Xbox and Steam on PC have done a better job of streamlining their platforms for the benefit of the players. Be it the refund policy, or backwards compatibility, there are areas where the Playstation needs to step up their game to really be for the players.
Cross-Platform Play
While Microsoft, Steam and even Nintendo have opened up their player bases to allow cross platform play across systems, Sony is stubbornly insistent on not allowing the same for the PSN network. While Sony’s ultimate reason for that is obvious, and even understandable – if you want to play with your friends, buy a PS4 – it’d be nice to see them doing something that is simply for the good of the players. Games like Rocket League and Minecraft are already playable with friends on the PC, Xbox and Switch. The process also seems to be really simple, so much so that Fornite had to recently roll out an update to remove cross-platform play between Xbox and the PS4 which had accidentally been left open.
Refund Policy
In this age of digital purchases, it takes some serious backward thinking to not allow hassle free refunds. Asking for a refunds on the PSN usually leads to a nasty customer service experience, with even threats of account ban and so on. On the other hand, Steam and Xbox have made the process relatively simple, while trying to make it hard to misuse.
Free Online
Every once in a while, I switch on my Playstation 3 to play some Battlefield 3, and it’s still a ton of fun. Back then, Sony never charged for online multiplayer, and it was great. I really don’t see a big spike in the quality of Sony’s online services since they started charging for it. PS Plus should simply be about getting free monthly games, while online should be free just like on the PC. Maybe you would even see a more active player base in multiplayer games that are otherwise struggling.
Backward Compatibility
Sony has an excellent library of games from the PS1 and the PS2 era, and there are so many new gamers on the PS4 who have never had the chance to enjoy them. Backward Compatibility is a great way to do it, and not just by re-releasing older games in the form of PS Classics on the PSN Store. I have a lot of PS3 games lying around that I would love to pop in and play without having to plug in my PS3.
ID Change
This one should be a no-brainer. Just do it already. My friend is ashamed of ‘codb1ACK0pskillz’ that he made while drunk one night soon after he got the PS3. And this other friend thought he was being really funny when he named his profile – AIDShashtagAIDS
