G2ThaUNiT said:
Ryuu96 said:
It was always baffling to me that anyone ever seriously suggested Sony could or even would block Xbox branded devices (and even the next Xbox/PC hybrid console) from playing PlayStation games. They have literally no reason to (folk need to stop thinking the next Xbox will compete with PlayStation) and not to mention it would be a frigging nightmare to even...How do you block it? Lol.
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It would be cumbersome and honestly beyond petty to do so, but it would most likely revolve around MAC addresses. The entire core principal of networking is that in order to connect to anything (internet then to a server, etc) a MAC table has to be established between the source and receiving first before an IP address is provided and the device can then connect. And the whole point of a MAC address is that it's unique to that specific device. No 2 MAC addresses are the same, BUT, the first half of a MAC address is unique to the manufacturer.
The way Sony could potentially do it is by constantly scanning for all devices whose first half of their MAC begins with, in this particular case, ROG Xbox Ally, and ban that manufacturer MAC.
The key difference though is how Sony would handle single player only games. Because the games are still hosted on Valve's and Epic's servers. Sony could only do the scenario I mentioned on the games that require a PSN account on PC. If you're downloading God of War or Days Gone, I have no idea how Sony could prevent that. And I doubt Valve or Epic would be interested in providing dedicated resources in helping Sony find a solution.
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Yeah, I don't see this as a likely scenario at all, Lol.
Sounds like Valve would need to approve such a move because it is their store and I seriously doubt Valve is going to start entertaining the idea of "Block certain Windows videogame from being able to be played on certain Windows devices" and quite frankly, Valve doesn't need Sony, Sony needs Valve for their PC efforts and Valve (who makes money off Sony products) will want to enable their games to be purchasable and playable on all devices, that is Valve's corporation's entire ethos for as long as they've existed, Lol.
And there are going to be Steam gamers who will want to access their Steam games on these devices, not just Xbox gamers. I think Steam would sooner tell Sony to piss off than start messing around with a device specific blocking system. Then there's the technical complexities that you've delved into and like you said, I don't see any possible way they can block single-player games from being able to be accessed, unless they block Windows entirely, Lmao, or take their games off the Steam store. Steam isn't going to faff around updating every single game for every single new device either and every single update.
But ultimately there is no logical business sense for Sony to block them, the money they make from one Windows based device is just the same as the money they make from another Windows based device, Sony is a business, they want to make money, and some are saying they're going to block potential PC sales to a PC based device all to stop that PC based device from selling a little more because it is called "Xbox" Okay then, Lol.
And ultimately this "PC based Xbox device" even without PlayStation games will still have access to vastly more games than any other platform precisely because it's PC and PC is by far the most supported platform in the industry, Lol. Sony blocking PlayStation games from being sold on it sounds like something which only hurts Sony, whilst this PC device has access to thousands of videogames and more "exclusives" than any other device still.
The Xbox handheld, and even future Series X successor, are going to be fairly niche devices, they won't be competing with PlayStation anymore, their competition is going to be other Windows based handhelds, Xbox's future competition will be closer to frigging Alienware than PlayStation in terms of hardware, Lol. Those are just going to be multiple entry ways into Xbox's ecosystem. Whatever these devices sell will come nowhere near PS5/PS6 so again, makes no logical business sense for Sony to block them.
And this "Xbox UI" will eventually be available on all Windows Handheld devices. Sony going to block all them too? Lol. If an Xbox OS is made at some point, that's going to be available on all Windows devices at some point...What, is Sony going to start only selling on Linux/Mac? Haha. Maybe it's just a "Windows Gaming Mode" in the next Console, it'll still be available on all Windows based devices, that's the purpose of PC, no one device is the 100m+ but it's a collection of devices which build up a huge ecosystem.
Xbox will (likely) be in all Windows devices in the future in some form or another, Sony ain't blocking them all.
And if all else fails, the Modders and hackers will find a way around it. Probably. Lmao.
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 09 June 2025
