Nintendo did exactly what many Switch owners had been dreaming of, bringing the most popular game in the world right now, Fortnite, to the most popular gaming console in the world, the Switch.
But you can always count on Sony to ruin your party, especially if you, a PlayStation 4 owner, were planning to challenge all your Switch-wielding friends to a casual game of Fortnite.
That’s because Sony decided to block cross-play between the PS4 and the Switch. And that’s what Sony is already doing with everyone else.
The Switch will support cross-play with Xbox One, PC, Mac, iPhone — and soon enough, Android. The confirmation that cross-play support is included came directly from Nick Chester from Epic Games who confirmed it all on Twitter.
Xbox One, PC, Mac, and mobile.
— Nick Chester (@nickchester) June 12, 2018
Given that Fortnite is pretty much a free to play a game that works exactly the same way no matter the platform, it’s only Sony’s PS4 owners that are left out of cross-play games.
And it gets worse. As The Verge explains, there’s one other side-effect PS4 users need to be reminded of. You won’t be able to simply log into their accounts on Switch consoles or any other device that can run the game. Epic accounts on PS4 are tied to PSN usernames.
It’s just business for Sony, it’s not personal, no matter how much you hate it. The PS4 is still immensely popular, and Sony certainly wants to keep its user base inside its PlayStation ecosystem.
Fortnite, meanwhile, isn’t the only game that doesn’t get cross-play support on the PlayStation, though it’s certainly more popular than other titles. Maybe things will change down the road. In the meantime, you could just avoid playing Fortnite on Sony’s console and switch to something else.
