Fortnite Goes Cross Platform on PS4

AlphaAtlas

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Sony has a long standing history of avoiding cross-platform play on the Playstation 4. Unfortunately for Sony, Fortnite does not, as it's available on almost every gaming platform out there and supports crossplay on all of them except for the PS4. Facing increasing pressure from Fortnite's insane popularity, along with a ton of backlash, Sony finally caved in, and launched a Fortnite cross-play beta on the PS4.

For 24 years, we have strived to deliver the best gaming experience to our fans by providing a uniquely PlayStation perspective. Today, the communities around some games have evolved to the point where cross-platform experiences add significant value to players. In recognition of this, we have completed a thorough analysis of the business mechanics required to ensure that the PlayStation experience for our users remains intact today, and in the future, as we look to open up the platform. This represents a major policy change for SIE, and we are now in the planning process across the organisation to support this change. We will update the community once we have more details to share, including more specifics regarding the beta timeframe, and what this means for other titles going forward.
 
good on them but seriously, sony needs to remove the stick from their ass
 
Its about time they come to grips with the idea that cross-platform can only help them sell more games.... since friends often times have xbox or PS4 but not both. The community finally got what they have been asking for, for a long time.
 
Actually Sony doesn't have a long stance againts cross play. During the 360 and PS3 era they were for it and MS was the one againts it. It is a reason why FFxiv is not on the XBox. It is a wonderful how company stances change depending what position they are in the market.
 
Isn't this the game where, if you played on PlayStation, your account was locked out of other platforms?
 
Sony has a long standing history of avoiding cross-platform play on the Playstation 4. Unfortunately for Sony, Fortnite does not, as it's available on almost every gaming platform out there and supports crossplay on all of them except for the PS4. Facing increasing pressure from Fortnite's insane popularity, along with a ton of backlash, Sony finally caved in, and launched a Fortnite cross-play beta on the PS4.

For 24 years, we have strived to deliver the best gaming experience to our fans by providing a uniquely PlayStation perspective. Today, the communities around some games have evolved to the point where cross-platform experiences add significant value to players. In recognition of this, we have completed a thorough analysis of the business mechanics required to ensure that the PlayStation experience for our users remains intact today, and in the future, as we look to open up the platform. This represents a major policy change for SIE, and we are now in the planning process across the organisation to support this change. We will update the community once we have more details to share, including more specifics regarding the beta timeframe, and what this means for other titles going forward.


hell yea, bout time too. Companies need to start being more careful about bullying their customers/fanbase. Good for Fortnite making a stand
 
Gentlemen, get your keyboards and mice out cause the PS4 players are here.
Actually some of the top ranked fortnite players play on PC, using controllers. This is a rare instance where the input method has less to do with it than actual practice and skill.
 
i wonder how much sales/play time tanked during this and how much that played a role in this decision (which is probably near 100%).
 
Thus the precedent has been set, there's no reason why any game here on out should not have full crossplay compatibility.
 
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Isn't this the game where, if you played on PlayStation, your account was locked out of other platforms?

Yes, and as far as I've heard that has not changed. Unless it does, I wouldn't play this game on the PS4 anyway.
 
Interesting, I did not realize that Fortnite was cross-play.

I wonder how they do it. Do controller users get aim-assist and mouse&keyboard users not? That wouldn't seem fair.

On the other hand, without aim assist, controller users ought to get completely and totally outclassed by those using mice and keyboards, at least if those reports out of Microsoft from several years ago were accurate.
 
Actually Sony doesn't have a long stance againts cross play. During the 360 and PS3 era they were for it and MS was the one againts it. It is a reason why FFxiv is not on the XBox. It is a wonderful how company stances change depending what position they are in the market.

That's odd, wasn't FFXI on the 360 though?
 
Wonder what Epic is going to do about all the PS4 users that had to create separate accounts to play on either the Xbox One or Switch since that is what the Fortnite error screen told the players to do. Hope they somehow implement an account merge option or else that's pretty shitty.

Yes, and as far as I've heard that has not changed. Unless it does, I wouldn't play this game on the PS4 anyway.

Apparently that is going to change soon once its fully implemented. But that's just hearsay for now.
 
Its nice to see them cave on this, it will allow more people to play together and set a precedent that this is a possible thing to take place. This gets rid of all the bullshit excuses the console makers have been using for decades. That said this will be short lived. Only a game as massively popular as fortnite can drive it. And unless we see a clear loss of sales on any game that is not cross platform they will go back to their old ways. The entire business model of consoles is based around locking customers into your platform. Matter of fact is allowing them to play outside the platform isn't doing that. That's who consoles make money your stuck in my platform so you have to pay a bogus yearly fee just to do multiplayer, you have to buy my accessories etc..... Once you start to open it up and they cant keep forcing money out of you then it doesn't make sense to make a console any more. I think this generation we will see some of this but at least at the start of another generation they will go back because they need to force units into the wild with coercion.

We also know very well that sony is a deceitful company many times when the public has been outraged or they say a chance to steal customers from MS they made a claim then later reneged on it without giving a single care. Linux on PS, backwards compatibility things like that. So it wont surprise me if fortnite gets short term vacation from the walled garden and then later they make up some excuse for why they had to stop that.
 
it'll not last long because of

1)controller vs mouse keyboard controller accuracy delta is huge
2)cheating is much better controlled on console and with the delta in controller accuracy - the console crowd will be claiming cheating in short order - even if there if cheating isn't rampant on PC. (it's not only controller accuracy, it's also display lag (gaming monitor vs. HDTV), wireless connection for consoles (typical) vs. wired for PCs (typical).
3)it'll cause dissent since PC crowd plays multiplayer for free and console crowd has to pay monthly for multiplayer access.

We've tried this before several times - it's never worked out. It's a great idea in loose theory, but the technical aspects of it get bogged down fast and cry's of foul run amuck.
 
That's odd, wasn't FFXI on the 360 though?
It was after the 3rd expansion. Only time they allowed it. For XIV it been said that MS wanted their own server running on their Xbox live system. I don't think they like the fact that xi didn't require their servers or gold membership to play.
 
Based on their history, I expect Sony to require a separate "cross platform" account to play. They don't want you to buy a new hat on Xbox then bring that account to to PSN and use said hat. Free hat! Nope, you gotta pay for it.

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I feel like I read a different memo than everyone else...

Turning on cross play is literally a switch for most of the games that have been asking for it. It's been turned on by "accident" in multiple games already (and quickly shut down because "Sony"). Instead of just letting the devs do this, Sony is having a "beta" so they can evaluate cross-play instead. If they like it, then they might let "select third parties" implement cross play (seriously, go back and read that memo).

That entire memo is literally lip-service and until cross play is "officially" implemented it should continue to be treated as such. At any point during this "beta" Sony can decide they don't want to continue allowing it. This won't stop people who misinterpreted the memo from convincing their friends to get their accounts locked though. People are already over-reading this memo so it's a win-win scenario for Sony.
 
it'll not last long because of

1)controller vs mouse keyboard controller accuracy delta is huge
2)cheating is much better controlled on console and with the delta in controller accuracy - the console crowd will be claiming cheating in short order - even if there if cheating isn't rampant on PC. (it's not only controller accuracy, it's also display lag (gaming monitor vs. HDTV), wireless connection for consoles (typical) vs. wired for PCs (typical).
3)it'll cause dissent since PC crowd plays multiplayer for free and console crowd has to pay monthly for multiplayer access.

We've tried this before several times - it's never worked out. It's a great idea in loose theory, but the technical aspects of it get bogged down fast and cry's of foul run amuck.

1) Fortnite separates lobbies based on input device so if you play with a controller then you only play with others that play with a controller and the same goes with KB/M.
2) The anti-cheat is really good system in Fortnite is top notch; I haven't run into a single cheater in the game in my ~100 hours. In Fortnite the worry isn't about cheats its about the glitches that people abuse (and that doesn't matter what platform you're on).
3) The console crowd doesn't pay to play Fortnite, its free to play and doesn't require a Xbox, Playstation or Nintendo online subscription either.

For Fortnite cross-platform should be perfectly fine. We'll see how other games handle it if it comes to them.
 
good on them but seriously, sony needs to remove the stick from their ass

Sony has always had a stick up their ass since they have been pushing their proprietary formats. Beta video cassettes to Sony only memory sticks. Sony did help bring some neat stuff to market but that Sony is long since dead.
 
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