As video games are undoubtedly going to play a big role in the upcoming holidays, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo are joining hands today to promote safer gaming. It’s not often that we see the three brands come together to push the video games industry forward, though the days when Sony blocked cross-play on Minecraft to protect younger players are now way behind us.
“At Xbox, we are aligned with both Nintendo, on behalf of the community of Nintendo Switch players, and PlayStation in our belief that protecting players online requires a multidisciplinary approach – one that combines the benefits of advanced technology, a supportive community, and skilled human oversight. We can accomplish more when we work toward the same goal, and so we will each continue investing in, evolving, and amplifying our approaches to user safety” wrote Dave McCarthy, Corporate Vice President, Xbox Operations.
Microsoft recently launched an Xbox Family Settings app to make it easier for parents to manage child accounts on the go, and Xbox consoles currently provide various controls to protect children playing games online. Sony and Nintendo also provide similar controls to protect vulnerable players using their consoles, though the three companies believe they can do even better by working together on making gaming safer for everyone.
Going forward, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo have agreed on the following three principles that will guide all of their future work on safety features:
- Prevention: Empower players and parents to understand and control gaming experiences.
- Partnership: We commit to partnering with the industry, regulators, law enforcement, and our communities to advance user safety.
- Responsibility: We hold ourselves accountable for making our platforms as safe as possible for all players.
“While the video game industry has a long history of taking steps to protect gamers, especially children, we recognize that no one company or industry will solve these challenges alone. We welcome others to make and share similar commitments to players everywhere,” McCarthy said today.
There are certainly more things that Xbox, PlayStation and other companies can do at the platform level to protect gamers, and in the case of Microsoft, Xbox online safety and privacy settings let you decide who can see your Xbox profile details and how people interact with you and your content. You can learn more about how to manage Xbox online safety and privacy settings on this support page.
