Sony blocks Fortnite cross-play between PS4 and Nintendo Switch: the latest news

Epic today announced that it’s much-anticipated account merge feature for console players is finally live. If you head to this page here, you’ll get a rundown of how it works and what the special conditions are to ensure everything goes smoothly and you don’t end up getting locked out of one of your accounts. To be clear, this is only going to be useful if you have V-Bucks, Fortnite’s in-game currency, or any collectibles like skins or emotes that are locked to another platform that you don’t typically play on.

Since last fall, when Sony finally relented and opened up the PlayStation platform for Fortnite gamers, players have been allowed to move their Fortnite accounts between PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, and mobile. However, because Sony prevented PS4 players from logging in on Switch or Xbox if they ever authenticated their account through its PSN system, that meant there was a segment of Fortnite players who may have had some collectibles and currency stuck on the PS4 version of the game, or alternatively stuck on the Switch or Xbox portion if they happened to be primarily PS4 players.

Sony finally backed away from its staunch and hard-headed approach to cross-platform play yesterday, announcing that it would start letting players of Epic Games’ Fortnite use PlayStation-linked accounts on the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One, as well as play against one another on shared servers. The move is a huge win for consumers after the PR disaster Sony suffered back at E3. It may also be the first step in a broader, transformational shift in the console game industry away from the locked down and restricted approach to platforms that’s existed pretty much since the onset of widespread online multiplayers.

Still, it’s not exactly a simple solution, and Sony admitted as much when John Kodera, the president and global CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, said the feature would be available in open beta “to conduct thorough testing.” On the developer end, Epic is working to help players with a feature that merges accounts, so players with multiple purchases and virtual currency can bring all of that together into a single account. Epic is also working on a separate feature that lets you unlink an account from one device and re-link it with another. (The former is coming in November, and the latter in “a few days,” according to Epic.)

Sony is finally enabling cross-play for Fortnite today. The PlayStation 4 maker had been blocking cross-play and progression between Fortnite on PS4 and Nintendo Switch / Xbox One in recent months. The move angered Fortnite fans who couldn’t access progress, skins, and purchases on an Xbox One or Nintendo Switch if they’d played on a PS4. Sony now says it is enabling cross-play for Fortnite fans.

“We recognize that PS4 players have been eagerly awaiting an update, and we appreciate the community’s continued patience as we have navigated through this issue to find a solution,” says Sony’s PlayStation chief, John Kodera. “The first step will be an open beta beginning today for Fortnite that will allow for cross platform gameplay, progression and commerce across PlayStation 4, Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, and Mac operating systems.”

Sony is facing a growing backlash from PlayStation 4 fans who are angry they can’t log into the Nintendo Switch version of the game. Thousands of Fortnite fans have been reacting angrily since news broke earlier this week that you can’t use a Fortnite account that’s been used on the PS4 with the Nintendo Switch. Sony is blocking Epic Games from allowing cross-play and progression sync between the PS4 and Nintendo Switch or Xbox One. This means that any progress, skins, and purchases can’t be shared between PS4 and Nintendo Switch or Xbox One.

After a couple of days of radio silence, Sony is finally starting to respond:

Fortnite Battle Royale is out now for the Switch, and while it’s obviously a big deal for Nintendo to secure a port of one of the biggest games in the world, Fortnite would be a great showcase for the hybrid console’s versatility no matter what. Epic’s Fortnite strategy has involved putting the game on every system possible, letting players share progress and items across each platform. The Switch version won’t be your best option most of the time, no, but its very existence makes it possible to play the game in even more situations.

Well, unless you’ve been playing Fortnite on PS4, that is.

Sony is blocking Fortnite cross-play and progression between the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, and Fortnite fans are furious. Hundreds of Fortnite fans are reacting angrily on the Resetera forums and Reddit after learning that you can’t use a Fortnite account that’s been used on the PS4 with the Nintendo Switch. This means that any progress, skins, and purchases can’t be shared between PS4 and Nintendo Switch, so the dream of playing Fortnite at home on a PS4 and then using the same account on the go on Nintendo Switch is truly dead.

“This Fortnite account is associated with a platform which does not allow it to operate on Switch,” explains a message on the Switch version of the game if you attempt to log in with an Epic Games account that has been used on the PS4. While there are options to decouple a PlayStation account from an Epic Games account, Fortnite players are warning that this doesn’t fix the problems. It appears the only option for PS4 players wanting to use the Nintendo Switch Fortnite version is to create a new Epic Games account.