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Sony Denies PS4 Players Cross-Play with Other Platforms in Fortnite

Everyone else will enjoy Fortnite with cross-play

Mar 13, 2018 13:51 GMT  ·  By
PS4 players are not invited to the party
   PS4 players are not invited to the party

Following the announcement that Fortnite: Battle Royale is coming to iOS and Android, and that it will allow cross-play between platforms, it was revealed that Sony would not enable this feature for PlayStation 4 users.

The ability to play a multiplayer game with people that are using other platforms than your own is not all that common. In fact, there are a handful of games that have this kind of functionality, and it’s not even something that developers actively look to implement.

Players from all platforms, including PC and consoles, have been asking for it for a long time, but with little success. Sure, there were some technical difficulties in the past, but things have become much more streamlined. So much so that Fortnite: Battle Royale is coming to mobile devices with the same assets as the big brother and cross-play with other platforms.

Sony is not digging the idea

As you might have noticed, when Epic was listing the platforms that would allow people to play together they omitted PlayStation 4. As it happens, it might have to do with Sony and its refusal to allow PS4 players to connect with others.

The discussions started when someone tweeted about cross-play between Xbox One and PlayStation 4, and Phil Spencer, who is VP of Gaming at Microsoft, responded with "Me 2". Then, the official Fortnite account came back with "We 3!"

The guys from Kotaku got in touch with Microsoft and found out that everything is technically in place, but the answer to the question is actually at Sony.

As it turns out, Sony has been dodging the cross-play issue for a long time, with no official reason. They once stated, a long time ago, that they can’t control the content coming from the other platforms and they have to be responsible towards their users. As if PlayStation 4 users never bring up relatives and sexual orientation during swearing matches online.

In any case, neither Sony or Epic Games have made any comments regarding cross-play with PlayStation 4 users, and it’s very likely that they are going to be stranded, all along, on the other side of the fence while everybody else is enjoying the company of various platform players.