Since the debut of its battle royale mode last fall, Fortnite‘s growth has been nothing but exponential, and while the game has been celebrated for giving players the ability to crossplay with friends on other systems and letting players carry over progress between platforms, the lack of support between PS4 and other consoles has been a point of contention with players, and recent events have been bringing things to a head.
Notably, this situation escalated just a few days ago with the release of Fortnite on the Nintendo Switch, and while we knew that the Switch version would be able to crossplay with friends on other platforms except PS4, players did not expect that Epic Games accounts that were previously tied to a PS4 system would not be able to be used on Nintendo Switch, and would require a new account to play.
In response to the numerous players that have made their complaints heard about the lack of Fortnite account compatibility between PS4 and its competing consoles — in this case, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch — a Sony spokesperson issued an official statement to BBC on the matter of Fortnite cross-compatibility with other platforms. The full statement from Sony is below:
”We’re always open to hearing what the PlayStation community is interested in to enhance their gaming experience. Fortnite is already a huge hit with PS4 fans, offering a true free-to-play experience so gamers can jump in and play online. With 79 million PS4s sold around the world and more than 80 million monthly active users on PlayStation Network, we’ve built a huge community of gamers who can play together on Fortnite and all online titles. We also offer Fortnite cross-play support with PC, Mac, iOS, and Android devices, expanding the opportunity for Fortnite fans on PS4 to play with even more gamers on other platforms.”
The statement itself from Sony doesn’t really give much of an indication of the matter and whether the company will actively work on improving or doing anything to firmly address the issues of not only crossplay, but also preventing players from carrying their progress on PS4 over to another console. Instead, it seems more that PS4 players will have to remain tied to playing either against other PS4 owners or those on PC or mobile, versus its competing consoles.
Fortnite is available now on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, iOS, and will be coming to Android later this summer.