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Sony caves: PlayStation cross-play is coming, starting with Fortnite
- Sony will finally allow PlayStation cross-play with a beta feature rolling out now within Fortnite.
- This means that if you have a PlayStation Now account connected to Fortnite, you can use that same account on Android.
- This is a huge shift for Sony, as the company has fought cross-play with major consoles for years.
It appears that Hell hath frozen over, as Sony announced today on the PlayStation blog that it is rolling out a PlayStation cross-play beta. The first game that will allow for competitive play regardless of the systems players are using will be Fortnite.
According to Sony, today’s update “will allow for cross-platform gameplay, progression, and commerce across PlayStation 4, Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, and Mac operating systems.” This likely means that if you start playing Fortnite on the PlayStation Network and then decide to play using the same account on Android, you can do that now, and your in-app purchases and stats should transfer along with you.
While it’s pretty obvious that the popularity of Fortnite and the support of cross-play on pretty much every system aside from the PlayStation 4 is what brought about this change, it appears that Fortnite won’t be the end. According to the blog post, Sony intends to bring PlayStation cross-play to other games:
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…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.
For years now, pretty much every major console has allowed universal cross-play for at least some of its games, with Sony being the only holdout. This update today represents a seismic shift in gaming at large, as it will now be very difficult for any gaming platform to not support cross-play.
What other games are you looking forward to getting cross-play features? Sound off in the comments!
NEXT: Fortnite Mobile on Android: Here are the compatible phones