'Fortnite' Cross-Play Won't Be Coming To PlayStation 4

Sony isn’t allowing cross-play and progression for “Fotnite” on the PlayStation 4 and it looks like it’s going to be that way moving forward. In an interview during IFA 2018, Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida has made it clear that the PS4 if the best way to play “Fortnite.”

“On cross-platform, our way of thinking is always that PlayStation is the best place to play. ‘Fortnite,’ I believe, partnered with PlayStation 4 is the best experience for users, that's our belief,” Yoshida was quoted as saying by The Independent. “But actually, we already opened some games as cross-platform with PC and some others, so we decide based on what is the best user experience. That is our way of thinking for cross-platform.”

The cross-play controversy began when Epic Games released “Fortnite” battle royale for the Nintendo Switch. Players quickly learned that they won’t be able to use their existing “Fortnite” account that has already been linked to their PS4 on the Switch console. This is also true if players try to link their account on an Xbox One console.

Yoshida may not be directly involved in managing how gaming on PlayStation consoles work, but he is still the overall head of Sony, as pointed out by The Verge. His statement makes it crystal clear that “Fortnite” on the PS4 won’t feature cross-play and progression. This is also unfortunate since Sony Interactive Entertainment America President and CEO Shawn Layden said in June that they were already “looking at a lot of possibilities” for cross-play and that they were “confident” that they’ll find a solution to this problem.

Xbox boss Mike Ybarra caught wind of Yoshida’s statements and responded on Twitter saying, “[Sony] still isn’t listening to gamers. All games should be cross play and progression with the right input flexibility and gamer options.” A user replied to Ybarra’s tweet pointing out that Sony has been beating Microsoft in terms of console sales, which may justify Sony’s stance. Ybarra countered that they have a larger and more diverse group of players who want to play together.

“We run Windows and Console. Larger gaming audience who wants to play together,” Ybarra said. “Gaming is diverse, if you only serve to bring joy to part of an audience then you are behind in many, many ways.”

“Fortnite” isn’t the only game that supports cross-play and progression between the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. “Minecraft” and “Rocket League” both have cross-play enabled between the two consoles.