Raptr CEO: Xbox way more progressive and open

Raptr CEO Dennis Fong gave some choice words about Sony and Microsoft's player profile policies.

If you're not familiar with Raptr, one of its functions provides its 18 million users with a cross-platform profile that takes all of their achievements and trophies from Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and Nintendo Steam. It also tracks your play time with games and ranks you against other Raptr members. This is all possible because Microsoft, Valve and Sony have measures in place for their user profiles to be accessible by a third party.

How Raptr functions going forward is up to Microsoft and Sony, and how open they are with their user profiles as they embrace more social functions and live-streaming. Fong said, "I think overall Xbox has been way more progressive and open, just in general.

"PlayStation on the other hand, has been very, very closed, almost to the point of ignorance, in terms of trying to control every little thing that goes through PlayStation and what their users see. So getting them to release any kind of data, user profile data and such, has been a lot like pulling teeth."

Fong said that the process was very slow with Sony, and nothing ever got done, which he said was due to the Japanese internet culture. But everyone he met at Xbox Live was more open.

This is all last-gen stuff, and with Sony's approach with the PlayStation 4 so far, it looks like they're going to be more supportive with social media. It just sounds like Fong is jockeying for user data to keep Raptr heads above the competition — and I have no problem with that. Let's not forget, Sony has multiple problems with hacks of user accounts, so can you blame them for being more strict with what information they give away?

Fong thinks that the PS4 with Gaikai "seems more open," so hopefully websites that embed console profiles into their sites will have open access to the same type of information they get now when the next generation of consoles arrive. As a user, I'd like control over my own data and who it gets shared with, as well as the ability to export my own data.

You can follow Senior Editor Lance Liebl on Twitter @Lance_GZ. He likes talking sports, video games, movies, and the stupidity of celebrities. Email at LLiebl@GameZone.com

[GamesIndustry]