Cross-Play finally coming to Fortnite on PlayStation 4
The immovable object has finally budged against the might of the unstoppable force. Sony Interactive Entertainment have caved to the demands of the community and given us what we asked for: cross-play and, more importantly, cross progression on Fortnite Battle Royale!
The announcement comes from the PlayStation.Blog, where President and Global CEO John Kodera stated that the feature will be available in what is being called an “Extended Beta” starting today. The official statement reads as follows:
Following a comprehensive evaluation process, SIE has identified a path toward supporting cross-platform features for select third party content. 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.
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. We see the beta as an opportunity to conduct thorough testing that ensures cross-platform play is best on PlayStation, while being mindful about the user experience from both a technical and social perspective.
Many will rejoice over this little change of heart. The biggest takeaway from this, for me at least, is this little snippet right here: that will allow for cross platform gameplay, progression and commerce. Cross progression always seemed like the much bigger issue than cross-play to me, now I have one less reason (besides the shitty building) to not jump back into Fortnite BR, So long as my progress comes with me when I play on a different system.
Another important snippet to pull from the blog post comes nearer to the end,
This represents a major policy change for SIE, and we are now in the planning process across the organization to support this change.
I think we can infer from this statement that cross-play may not be locked to only Fortnite BR, but may possibly extend to games like Rocket League, Minecraft, and maybe more in the not-too-distant future. It will certainly be interesting to see how things roll out from here. I’ll be checking out Fortnite soon to see how this “Beta” works.
