Two big announcements at E3 this year have been cross-network play for Minecraft and Rocket League.

At Microsoft’s E3 press conference it was announced that Minecraft would be cross-play between PC, VR, Xbox One, Switch and mobile players. Then, at Nintendo’s E3 Spotlight, it was revealed that Rocket League would also feature cross-play. Again this was between PC, Xbox One and Switch players.

There was no mention of the potential of Playstation 4 cross-play. This is because it’s not happening. Playstation’s global sales and marketing head Jim Ryan attempted to explain and defend the decision in an interview with Eurogamer:

“We’ve got to be mindful of our responsibility to our install base. Minecraft – the demographic playing that, you know as well as I do, it’s all ages but it’s also very young. We have a contract with the people who go online with us, that we look after them and they are within the PlayStation curated universe. Exposing what in many cases are children to external influences we have no ability to manage or look after, it’s something we have to think about very carefully.”

When pressed further for an explanation, especially considering Nintendo (whoa re probably the most family friendly console developer on the planet) are willing to sign up to cross-network play, Ryan simply said “everyone has to make their own decisions.”