Sorry but they were all kinda like that

They also answer stuff on safety in that FAQ in the OP.

That's like saying to shop at best buy, you need a targets card. To buy at amazon you need to first get a power up card from gamestop.

It is just another of MS desperate tactics.

Ofcourse they have, which is exactly what complicates matters. XBL has their own policy and black list of players etc. Eurogamer just summed it all up http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-08-02-microsoft-really-wants-you-to-know-playing-minecraft-online-is-safe

An Xbox Live sign-in is now required for online multiplayer no matter which platform you're playing on. That includes Android phones and, eventually, Nintendo Switch. You need a gamertag to connect to a Realm, an official server partner or a hosted Minecraft world via an IP address.

"By creating an Xbox Live account and gamertag, when logged in you can set your own privacy and multiplayer preferences, create and manage accounts for your family members, and stake your claim on your name in the Minecraft universe," Microsoft said.

"Plus, because everyone will have an account, if you do run into any creepers ruining the fun, it's easy to report them, and for our Enforcement team to identify the player in question."

Yet Sony has their own policy, players you have on ignore or have warnings against them. MS conveniently ignores all of that and says jopin XBL and we'll police the userbase from scratch with our own rules about misconduct, bad language etc. When you log in to Origin or EA you're still under psn policy, yet MS wants to skip that and treat all users under theirs.

Perhaps an analogy in religion would be helpful. A Christian church and Islamic mosque say let's pray together for progress. Yet first all members have to register with the other church and adhere to their rules. It's rather one sided. MS is not just saying let's do crossplay, they also want to police the psn userbase...

Another thing is that Minecraft on psn will then be limited to MS hosted servers, giving MS a lot more leverage to make any changes they like server side. Nintendo seems to be fine with it, yet considering the state of their own online, anything would be an improvement :)

Same goes if it went the other way around. Sony dont own Minecraft and they should feel really piliviged that MS still allows this game to be played on a PS4 which is a great practice. Sony should start respecting that like Nintendo does or if i was MS i would simply remove support completely and build the game around those who actually care. Its simple.

So it's not your problem to change from: playing with others with your own gamertag, being able to find the people you know through their gamertag, to creating a new gamertag none of your friends know, under new rules, even if you're still playing with the exact same userbase? Isn't that slightly inconvenient?

Why would it have the worst version of the game? It has a large userbase, MS gains much more than Sony by selling the game and its DLC on ps4.

Why would Sony care to lose out on the much smaller platform royalty. Those users will simply buy something else, maybe even a Sony game that gives them 100% of the revenue. Sure Minecraft is popular, but it's not a system seller or deal breaker. It hasn't been at parity with the PC for the longest time, has never seemed to hurt it. MS is the one that will lose the most by neglecting the ps4 version.

This thread is funny "Sony should be thankful MS still allows Minecraft on the ps4" MS is the one who should be thankful for getting all those ps4 users to  enjoy Minecraft who then get tempted to buy all kinds of Minecraft merchandise as well as other versions.

But sure, one corporation holds a grudge while the other tries to spread the love of Minecraft for all. It's simply business. MS can save costs with a unified userbase and attract new people into XBL. Sony loses control over the multiplayer portion while seeing no extra income from this move. MS will need to sweeten the deal if they want this to happen.

Who cares about Nintendo in this equation? Multiplatform games arent what gamers gravitate towards with  Nintendo console, unlike PS and XB. So this is really just between them. And Nintendo opening up the Switch for cross platform play plays exactly into what I have been saying: Switch gets a massive online userbase influx for games like MC and RL which only benefits Nintendo and helps ensure these online games dont potentially die out quickly on the Switch.

Didn't Sony try to go cross platform last gen and Microsoft denied them because they were winning? Sometimes the tables turn.

Linking accounts (like U-Play, Origin, Steam, etc) to your PSN account isn't the same as loging directly into another network on a PlayStation device.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5477-WPJM-9388

Portal 2's Steam/PSN Account link process is still outlined even though it is no longer supported. Some helpful information is transmitted between the services live including "Steam Achievements".

These accounts are linked to PSN, like Origin can be linked to PSN, like U-Play can be linked to PSN... What MS wants is to bypass PSN and Nintendo Network altogether to control everything. Even though Steam allowed all manner of things to be synchronized between these two independent services including achievements and likely DLC, MS wants direct control.

Hmm, correct way to say it is probably, that a small minority want to prevent cross-play (probably for console-wars reasons). A bigger minority feels the need to play together, as they have a friend who plays Minecraft on a different platform and the ig majority don't care.

I don't care about any of that. That just sounds like excuses, not solutions.
You are linking accounts. Xbox Live isn't replacing the Playstation Network.

An Xbox Live sign-in is now required for online multiplayer no matter which platform you're playing on. That includes Android phones and, eventually, Nintendo Switch. You need a gamertag to connect to a Realm, an official server partner or a hosted Minecraft world via an IP address.

That does not sound like linking accounts. That sounds very much like signing into XBL bypassing PSN.

Uh. Haven't you been paying attention?
You are missing out on multiple features by not having the better together update.

I've never played MC online, split-screen only. It doesn't work online with split-screen as our kid accounts don't have full psn accounts to start with. Why would I give them XBL accounts if I don't even want them to have PSN accounts....

Those are just excuses.
Minecraft is a massive game, it's sold more copies across all platforms than probably every single Playstation 4 exclusive combined with it's current standing at 122 million copies shifted. (Or at-least the top dozen exclusives from the short glance I looked at.)
https://www.polygon.com/2017/2/27/14755644/minecraft-sales-122m-copies
 
So? Sony stands to lose on platform royalties with unified DLC. You buy the DLC on ps4, Sony gets the full cut. Now you buy the DLC on the xbox store, has to run on ps4 as well, what does Sony earn from that transaction. It's simple business.

Please. Microsoft doesn't need the Playstation 4 for Minecraft to be successfull.
The game was a runaway success before it's release on even last generation consoles.

The game on PC+Switch+Xbox+Mobile > Playstation 4 by several multiples in total copies sold. If you think that is insignificant, then you are dreaming.

If you think an extra 60 million potential players is insignificant then you are dreaming

Nice way to try and turn it around to make Microsoft look like the bad guy.
Sony is being anti-consumer. This isn't the first time they have denied similar cross-platform attempts. Case in point: Rocket League.

https://www.polygon.com/e3/2017/6/13/15795376/rocket-league-cross-platform-playstation-4

MS has blocked cross-platform in the past as well. That article doesn't state any reason why Sony would hold it back. Yet you think it's a grudge that Sony is ok with PC yet not xbl? We don't know the details, just the PR pressure.

Anyway here's a list of Sony's anti-consumerism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_that_support_cross-platform_play

We don't know the terms MS and Sony have for cross platform connectivity, we only know that they're not compatible atm.