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Nintendo PlayStation (Games) Sony XBox (Games) Entertainment Games

Sony Is Blocking Fortnite Cross-Play Between PS4, Nintendo Switch Players (theverge.com) 90

Earlier today, Nintendo announced during its E3 press conference that Epic Games' Fortnite would be coming to the Switch console. Unfortunately, when Epic Games PR representative Nick Chester confirmed cross-play compatibility, the PS4 wasn't on the list. The Switch version of Fortnite will only support cross-play with Xbox One, PC, Mac, and mobile. The Verge reports: That aligns with past cross-play implementations between Xbox One, PS4, PC, and mobile, with Sony blocking other console platforms from playing with its own. You can cross-play between PS4, mobile, and PC. Unfortunately, this also suggests that PS4 players of Fortnite won't be able to log in to their Epic accounts on the Switch, meaning you won't be able to have any weekly progress carry over or gain access to any of your skins or emotes. This is because your Epic account is tied up with your PSN username in most cases. For instance, you can't log in to an Epic account tied to PSN on the Xbox One version of Fortnite, and it sounds like the same will be true for the Switch.
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Sony Is Blocking Fortnite Cross-Play Between PS4, Nintendo Switch Players

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    Can I still eat chicken nuggets while I play?

  • by Zaelath ( 2588189 ) on Tuesday June 12, 2018 @08:01PM (#56774774)

    I'd have thought if you were on a console blocking PC players from joining would be welcomed...?

    • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12, 2018 @08:15PM (#56774826)

      FYI: This is not about mixing PS4 vs Switch on the same server. It's about once you've ever played on PS4, then Sony is making it impossible to ever use the same Fortnight account to play on Switch.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Precisely. All of the other games that have allowed PC players in with consoles have been riddled with cheaters, even MS's own Sea of Thieves... I'm glad they're kept out on PS4

      • cheater kept out of PS4?
        hahahahaha
        hahaha
        hahahahahahaha
        hahahahaha
        hahahahaha
        hahahaha
        haha
        ha

        ha

        haha

        ha
        ha

    • You can team up with your friends playing on another system.
    • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      I'd have thought if you were on a console blocking PC players from joining would be welcomed...?

      Except in battle royale games, which require a massive number of players (most start with 100 players). Having players from different consoles and platforms means a bigger pool of players to begin with.

      And I believe with this type of game, with rounds being really quick, advantages of platforms gets minimized.

      I suspect Epic will quickly offer an option to unlink their PS4 account from their Epic account.

    • by Ksevio ( 865461 )
      IIRC it's the other way around - Console players can join PC matches (if they want to play with friends on PC or something) but PC players can't join console matches (because they'd slaughter everyone). Problem is PS4 players can't play with XBox players so the PS4 players can't play with anyone that could also play with Xbox
    • It some ways it is a good plan.
      Consoles and PCs with different system requirements, available controllers and degrees of hackability means a rather unfair game especially where it is twitch type of game where reflexes are key.
      Keyboard PC Gamer get high precision, and a lot of options with the key presses, but it may not be as fast as with an analog control for such a game, having distant sniping being an advantage, vs. perhaps faster close range combat on a console.

      The switch which is meant to play on a tin

  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12, 2018 @08:20PM (#56774842)

    and a Switch ain't one.

  • Weirdly written (Score:5, Insightful)

    by The Grim Reefer ( 1162755 ) on Tuesday June 12, 2018 @08:28PM (#56774860)

    The Switch version of Fortnite will only support cross-play with Xbox One, PC, Mac, and mobile.

    What a strange way to word that. it will "only" work with everything but PS4.

    The Verge reports: That aligns with past cross-play implementations between Xbox One, PS4, PC, and mobile,

    So did the PS4 used to work with Xbox One, PC, and Mobile?

    with Sony blocking other console platforms from playing with its own. You can cross-play between PS4, mobile, and PC.

    Wait, no. Sony won't work with any other consoles. But it still works with PC and mobile.

    I don't even want to RTFA as it might say that it will work with NES, Atari 2600, Magnavox Odyssey and Ms. Pacman. And if you sacrifice a goat during a blue super moon it will also work with Duesenberg cars, the original Eli Whitney cotton gin, and any abacus built before 1874.

    • Yea, I also thought it was suspicious how they managed to word it to sound like this was somehow everyone else's fault but Sony's.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      The problem with cross-play between consoles is that "modded" consoles can taint the gameplay. With a PC you already know it's a taintable source, so you put additional protection measures that would make PC cheaters easy to spot, but PS4, Xbox One and Switch cheats would go unnoticed.

      Where things get wacky is that it's entirely possible to jailbreak a console by using the crossplay functionality. Because Fortnite is basically a (Unreal) game engine that was designed for single player, you can typically hac

    • You're telling me I can't run it on the antikythera mechanism? Well, that sucks.

      • by tepples ( 727027 )

        You're telling me I can't run it on the antikythera mechanism?

        If you have one of those, you might want to try Kerbal Space Program on it instead.

    • I'm still holding out for the Atari ST port...
  • Not about cross play (Score:5, Informative)

    by darkain ( 749283 ) on Tuesday June 12, 2018 @08:41PM (#56774896) Homepage

    For those that don't want to dig into the details, here is the gist of it.

    Fortnite uses an Epic Games account to login. If you've EVER logged into a Sony's PS4 with this account and touched Fortnite on it, this account become permanently locked out of both Microsoft's XBox One and Nintendo's Switch. The issue is not about cross play even, people are accepting that it wont happen. The issue is the fact that the outside Epic account becomes locked because of a deal Sony forced upon Epic games.

    This of course became front and center in the spot light again today now that the Switch version of the game launched this morning, and a fuckton of people are pissed off that their in-game progress and paid content is entirely inaccessible on the Switch if they've ever touched the PS4 version.

    • by Luthair ( 847766 )
      Particularly bad as one imagines avid fortnite players with a ps4 probably logged in at some point for a look-see even if they didn't / don't actively play the game there.
    • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      This of course became front and center in the spot light again today now that the Switch version of the game launched this morning, and a fuckton of people are pissed off that their in-game progress and paid content is entirely inaccessible on the Switch if they've ever touched the PS4 version.

      They're pissed because Switch is the first mobile/portable platform that has real controllers. The appeal is you can take your progress with you - perhaps you played on PC or console at home, take your switch and play

    • by flink ( 18449 )

      Fortnite uses an Epic Games account to login. If you've EVER logged into a Sony's PS4 with this account and touched Fortnite on it, this account become permanently locked out of both Microsoft's XBox One and Nintendo's Switch. The issue is not about cross play even, people are accepting that it wont happen. The issue is the fact that the outside Epic account becomes locked because of a deal Sony forced upon Epic games.

      I am gobsmacked that Epic would agree to this. It's their account management system after all and Fortnight is huge. I can understand not implementing cross-platform play with the PS4 at the behest of Sony, but I'm surprised Sony had the leverage to make Epic piss off so many of their customers like this.

    • Sony once again screws their customers? This is my shocked face.

  • I'm a Playstation fan, but I think Sony should stop this nonsense, if people want to play with other consoles they should be allowed. It's clear there is no technical reason for not being able to have crossplay as it has even worked for a couple of hours back when fortnite was introduced on the PS..
    Sony, stop it, and don't talk about nonsense of not being able to moderate it, nobody wants that anyway..

    • I am a PS4 user and this is all old news. Search Google, Sony keeps this stance by years. I use a PS4 to play with PS4 users, not PC or any other consoles. Specially not PC. I dont play fortnight which is a bad game.
      • Search Google, Sony keeps this stance by years.

        Only since their success with the PS4, before that with the PS3 and PS2 they were VERY much in favor of cross-platform play with other consoles.

        They've ALWAYS been supportive of Playstation-PC (including OSX and Linux) crossplay.

  • This is why we can't have nice thing.

"Oh what wouldn't I give to be spat at in the face..." -- a prisoner in "Life of Brian"

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