After a long time, Sony has finally relented. It appears that the Playstation 4 will begin to allow cross-platform play with its rival consoles the Xbox One and the Nintendo Switch, as previously reported by the Inquisitr .
Cross-play on the Playstation 4 will begin today as a cross-platform beta for Fortnite is released, making the popular survival-shooter game the first cross-play title supported by Sony.
The announcement, made via a blog post on the Sony Playstation website this morning, marks an important moment in gaming history. For the first time in history, a game will be played by people on every major platform at the same time — including mobile devices.
This decision came from discussions with Fortnite’s developers ahead of the launch of its sixth season of the popular Battle Royal game. With that new season starting soon, people are spending money on DLC to coincide with the new season of play. This meant that not having cross-platform play would almost certainly cost Sony money as people chose to buy passes in the Nintendo or Microsoft stores. This was no doubt part of the argument that Epic made to Sony regarding the decision to allow cross-platform play — and it has obviously worked.
Cross-platform play comes to PS4, beginning with an open beta for Fortnite today. Full details and supported platforms: https://t.co/RtYQv17Woj pic.twitter.com/0fDVD4N25x
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) September 26, 2018
Nintendo and Microsoft, through the Switch and the Xbox One, have already been allowing cross-platform play on Fortnite . That was just one of the games that the two different platforms have promoted in terms of cross-play. Gamers can also play Minecraft and Rocket League across different consoles.
Fortnite players had a brief window of cross-play between Xbox and PS4 owners in the past — when Playstation Network (PSN) and Xbox Live accounts were matched together in games before a “configuration issue” led to Epic preventing this as a possibility.
EA has sought cross-platform play for some time, looking to bring it to the FIFA series — one of the most popular sports title franchises of all time. EA Sports has previously spoken out on the issue, and the move from Sony to allow it on one game will certainly open up the prospect of more to follow.
Fans have been quick to react on Twitter, with the best reactions coming from competitor Microsoft on it’s Xbox accounts:
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— Xbox (@Xbox) September 26, 2018
That response was outdone by the U.K. account which referenced another popular meme that has been doing the rounds on Twitter lately:
Marvel: “Infinity War is the most ambitious crossover event in history”
Fortnite: https://t.co/MXtONGWeuQ
— Xbox UK (@xboxuk) September 26, 2018
As expected the fans went straight to celebration, using gifs was popular:
Two fans were looking to some up their excitement with just one word:
More like..
— Dom (@DomsPlaying) September 26, 2018
It may have taken longer than fans wanted, but it’s finally happened and fans across all platforms are rejoicing.
