After sticking to its stubborn little guns for quite a while, Sony has finally come to the party with cross-play, starting with everyone’s favourite battle royale juggernaut, Fortnite.
[jwplayer ufxzSg8Y]
Announced earlier today via a post on the PlayStation Blog, global CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, John Kodera, said that “following a comprehensive evaluation process, SIE has identified a path toward supporting cross-platform features for select third-party content.”
“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.”
While there’s no mention of other cross-play titles at this stage, nor is there any information on how long the Fortnite beta will run, Kodera does say that the event “represents a major policy change for SIE,” so the future of Sony’s cross-play is looking pretty good.
If you missed all the hoo-ha previously, Sony had stubbornly denied gamers the ability to play with those on other platforms, which is something that’s become fairly ubiquitous across other platforms. For example, Switch owners could play games like Minecraft or Fortnite with Xbox One users, but not with those on PS4. Despite backlash from media as well as the wider gaming community, Sony continued to hold off on cross-play, mostly because of money reasons, so it’s a big deal that they’ve decided to get involved.
Now that everyone can play together no matter what platform they choose to game on, it marks a huge step forward for the industry and is, honestly, the best thing for the gaming community moving forward. If you ask the folks over at Xbox, everyone’s pretty happy that Sony has finally decided to come to the party.
🙌
— Xbox (@Xbox) September 26, 2018
It’s a damn good time to be a gamer, folks. Fuck yeah.
