Sony won’t let “Fortnite” players on PS4 play with other platforms

Sony

• Microsoft and Sony directly compete in the video-game
  market, where the PlayStation 4 has a commanding lead over the
  Xbox One in hardware sales numbers.
• Since last year, Microsoft has been pushing the concept
  of “cross-platform” play: the ability to play games like
  “Minecraft,” “Fortnite,” and more with friends on PC,
  smartphone, and even Nintendo’s Switch.
• Sony refuses to allow games on the PlayStation 4 to
  work with games on Microsoft’s Xbox One and the
  Switch.
• Sony president Kenichiro Yoshida reaffirmed that
  stance in a recent interview: “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.”

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“Fortnite” is the biggest game in the world, and you can play it
on pretty much any device that plays games — from the PlayStation
4 to the Nintendo Switch to the Xbox One, and even on
smartphones.

And, on most of those platforms, you can play the game with
anyone else. Xbox One “Fortnite” players can play with Nintendo
Switch, and iPhone, and PC (and vice versa). 

There’s just one exception: Sony’s PlayStation 4.

Sony doesn’t allow PlayStation 4 “Fortnite” players to interact
with players on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, specifically
because Microsoft and Nintendo are Sony’s competition in the
video game space. And it sounds like that stance isn’t going to
change, despite repeated calls from PS4 owners and game creators
for Sony to open its platform.

“On cross-platform, our way of thinking is always that
PlayStation is the best place to play,” Sony CEO Kenichiro
Yoshida
told the Press Association in an interview last week.
“‘Fortnite’, I believe, partnered with PlayStation 4 is the best
experience for users, that’s our belief.”

“Fortnite” is the same game across all the platforms
it’s available on.
Nintendo

In the case of “Fortnite” on PlayStation 4, users are actually
locked to Sony’s game console. 

If you tie your “Fortnite” account to the PlayStation Network,
you’re unable to use that account — and anything you’ve earned in
game or, more importantly, purchased in game — anywhere
else. That isn’t the case on any other platform where “Fortnite”
is available.

It’s a move that
sparked outrage earlier this year, even spawning a hashtag:
#BlameSony.

And PlayStation 4 owners weren’t the only ones upset — major game
makers and publishers have repeatedly, openly criticized Sony’s
decision to silo the PlayStation 4 multiplayer experience from
competing platforms.

“We cannot have a game that works one way across everywhere else
except for on this one thing,” Pete Hines, a Bethesda Game
Studios senior vice president,
said in a recent interview with Game Informer regarding the
upcoming launch of “The Elder Scrolls: Legends” on game
consoles. 

Bethesda
Softworks

“The Elder Scrolls: Legends” is a competitive card game, similar
to Blizzard’s “Hearthstone,” that’s the same across all
platforms, visually and gameplay-wise, whether you’re playing it
on an iPhone or a PC. The game is turn-based, so it doesn’t
require precise, reaction-based controls.

In so many words: There’s no technical reason it
couldn’t work across competing platforms like the Xbox One and
the PlayStation 4. 

But it sounds like Sony isn’t budging. “We decide based on what
is the best user experience,” Yoshida said. “That is our way of
thinking for cross-platform.”

In the case of “The Elder Scrolls: Legends,” Sony’s thinking may
interfere with the PlayStation 4 getting the game at all. “It is
our intention in order for the game to come out, it has to be
those things on any system,” Hines said. 

In other words: If Sony doesn’t allow cross-play for this game,
Bethesda won’t publish it on the PlayStation 4. And that doesn’t
sound like a great user experience.