For well over a year now, Fortnite players who opted to use their PlayStation 4 were out of luck if they wanted to rep their same account on another platform. PlayStation and Sony seemed adamant to hold onto as big a piece of the Fortnite pie as they could by restricting players from moving their accounts onto other platforms like Xbox One or Nintendo Switch.
That’s now changed, thanks to an update from the official PlayStation Blog. Fortnite cross-play from PlayStation to all other major platforms has been enabled, letting players battle royale it out with all their friends.
While the cross-play functionality isn’t 100 percent ready yet, the good news is that players will be able to join a beta for the feature starting today. Fortnite will be available to cross-play between PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac.
“Today, the communities around some games have evolved to the point where cross-platform experiences add significant value to players,” the blog states. “In recognition of this, we have completed a thorough analysis of the business mechanics required to ensure that the PlayStation experience for our users remains intact today, and in the future, as we look to open up the platform.”
When PlayStation adds cross-play to Fortnite so you can have the ultimate battle royale pic.twitter.com/AguFT6bmyR
— GameSpot (@GameSpot) September 26, 2018
By Sony Interactive Entertainment’s own admission, this is a huge shift for them as a company. Previously, Sony blocked the use of Fortnite accounts between the PS4 and any other console, meaning players had to restart their progression and purchase their favorite cosmetics all over again.
Many report that cross-play functionality between consoles (and not just for Fortnite) has been a possibility for a while now; it’s just been up to the dominant companies to press the right buttons. Microsoft attempted to pressure Sony into allowing cross-play earlier this year, stating that its offer to coordinate with Sony was still on the table. Back in June 2017, Sony made a meager attempt to justify the blocking of cross-play on titles like Fortnite, Rocket League, and Minecraft to Eurogamer: “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.”
Competition breeds excellence
— Jack “CouRage” Dunlop (@CouRageJD) September 26, 2018
The groundbreaking Fortnite cross-platform announcement will only make other top Battle Royale games have to improve.
I’m excited for the future of Fortnite, Blackout, and PUBG because all developers must continue innovating to keep players happy.
Sony has yet to say if this cross-play functionality will extend to other titles, merely mentioning in its blog post that it will update the community “going forward.”
Update 2:25pm CT, Sept. 26: Epic Games has clarified that it is working on a way for players to combine their purchases from their PlayStation Fortnite accounts with all their other accounts. Epic says that update will be coming in November.
Epic also stated that it’s working on a way for players to unlink their consoles from one Fortnite account and link up a different one. Epic says that will be coming in a matter of days.
1) An account-merging feature to combine Battle Royale purchases, coming in November.
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) September 26, 2018
2) Enabling unlinking a console from one Fortnite account, and relinking to another Fortnite account. Coming in a few days.