Something went wrong. Try again later
    Follow

    Fortnite

    Game » consists of 8 releases. Released Jul 25, 2017

    Originally a co-operative looter shooter from the studios behind Unreal Tournament and Gears of War, Fortnite became one of the most successful PvP "battle royale" games and later became its own platform for several types of games.

    Epic Accidentally Enables Crossplay Between PS4 and XB1, Has Since Been Fixed

    Avatar image for babychoochoo
    BabyChooChoo

    7106

    Forum Posts

    2094

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 2

    User Lists: 2

    #1  Edited By BabyChooChoo

    Surprised there wasn't a forum post about this. Then again, it is Fortnite so maybe I shouldn't be surprised.

    Long story short, a bunch of users noticed they were playing with people from other platforms, other people hopped on to test it out, turns out it was true, started posting everywhere, and Epic fixed the issue.

    Some people believe that this was, in fact, intentional as either free advertising for their game (it definitely got Fortnite in the headlines on every major website) or a move to put pressure on Sony because "look crossplay is so easy we did that shit on accident." Obviously, there's nothing to support that idea other than pure speculation and wishful thinking and there's no real reason to not take Epic at their word, but it's still fun to think about nonetheless.

    Phil Spencer of course chimed in on Twitter saying he wished they could have left it on, but he's been beating that whole drum for a while now. Sony, unsurprisingly, has remained quiet. Regardless of the console manufacturers' stance on crossplay in the past, do you think think more and more developers will chime in with the ol' "yeah we could do it, but Sony doesn't seem open to the idea" to put pressure on them or will everyone just remain quiet?

    Avatar image for deactivated-5d056614f191a
    deactivated-5d056614f191a

    1008

    Forum Posts

    11123

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 5

    User Lists: 4

    Console version could cross play with PC version but not with each other when it launched but that was also "Fixed" after a month

    Avatar image for opusofthemagnum
    OpusOfTheMagnum

    647

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    This is why I hate that Sony was able to get the “consumer friendly” label and hold on to it after the launch of this generation of consoles. MS has been nothing but, with one time purchases for Xbox AND PC version, with head honcho totally down with features like cross play, with backwards compatibility and all that, MS seems (now) so much better to the end consumer. They are more okay with mods and crossplay and all that stuff. They seem to have a “the devs and the communities that follow them know what they want from games and we shouldn’t hold them back from those things” mentality to Sony’s “ah, the internet is scary! But actually we know that’s silly we just like to have archaic rules.”

    Avatar image for sogeman
    Sogeman

    1039

    Forum Posts

    38

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 3

    #4  Edited By Sogeman

    Phil will say whatever people want to hear as long as Xbox isn't selling so hot.

    And just like Microsoft wouldn't if they were first, Sony has no reason to allow it. Shitty but they'd be stupid to do it.

    Avatar image for younggryan
    younggryan

    66

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    Microsoft and Sony both suck at cs. The real issue is the gamers who got so freaked out about the Cross play that they reported it instantly. Everyone knows Cross play isn't supported by any platform so they knew that by saying something it was getting turned off.

    Avatar image for dietomaha
    dietomaha

    235

    Forum Posts

    125

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 1

    User Lists: 1

    I can't imagine this was actually accidental. That seems like a thing that can't just 'accidentally' happen. I don't think there's a guy at Epic with a big switch on his desk labeled 'Cross Platform (DO NOT TOUCH).' It seems more like someone wanting people to know just how easy it could be to enable cross-platform play. Which is interesting in itself.

    Avatar image for notnert427
    notnert427

    2389

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 4

    User Lists: 1

    @sogeman said:

    Phil will say whatever people want to hear as long as Xbox isn't selling so hot.

    Perhaps, but it arguably isn't just lip service. The guy has been about as responsive to the consumer as you can possibly hope for from a high-level executive, and has mostly followed through on what he's talked about wanting to do with Xbox. While I don't doubt that a large part of Spencer's motivation here is 1) an effort to somewhat neuter Sony's console sales advantage, and 2) hopefully earn back some goodwill with gamers in the process, I do believe that he genuinely wants to do this because it would be better for gaming on the whole. And if openly stating his support of the idea highlights that Sony is the one preventing this from happening and puts them in a negative light, all the better for MS.

    FWIW, I totally get why Sony doesn't want this. What I don't get is why Sony seemingly gets a free pass from the gaming community on this kind of stuff. Are people really still that butthurt about the previous Xbox regime's missteps? It's like Sony gets to have their cake and eat it, too. Everyone fawned over the PS4 for being the slightly more powerful console (which didn't really manifest meaningfully at all) and tolerated what was basically three years of the console having little to nothing in the way of exclusives outside of Bloodborne, while completely ignoring the Xbox One as it put out some great exclusives like Titanfall, Sunset Overdrive, multiple Forzas, Halo, Gears, etc. Then Sony finally gets their first-party shit together about this time last year, and everyone lauds them endlessly for it, which is all well and good. Meanwhile, Xbox, responding to the demonstrated consumer love of "power", creates a fucking beast of a console with a significant power upgrade over any console out there, and suddenly the refrain from gamers is "but where are the exclusives?"

    I'm encouraged by the Xbox One X's reported preorder numbers, so hopefully it's simply a vocal minority of folks talking in circles to try and rationalize why they should continue to hate Xbox now for offering what sold them on a PS4, while now championing the importance of first-party content they didn't give a fuck about for years. Oh yeah, and the racing game genre doesn't exist, which is why it doesn't matter that there have been four (probably soon to be five) great Forza games before Sony could put out one quality first-party racing game. And the one Sony wants people to get excited about is a demo that they're now pretending is a full game because they apparently told Polyphony to put something out within four fucking years of the PS4 launching. It features a car list as paltry as you'd expect, and all indications are that it will not stack up against several games out there when it launches. You know, because first-party shit is so important, except when it isn't.

    I digress, but the reality is that the technology for cross-play is there, Microsoft is on record multiple times saying they're willing to do it, and Sony is refusing. You can understand Sony's reticence all you want (I do as well), but they deserve to be ripped for not allowing this to happen. I guaran-fucking-tee if the shoe was on the other foot and MS was pulling this shit, e-torches would be out everywhere with indignant gamers proclaiming how anti-consumer MS is. To the OP's question, I think most developers are tactful enough to not call out Sony on it, and it's not really their responsibility to, IMO. It's our responsibility as gamers, and I'd love for more people to start holding Sony to their b.s. Criticize Sony's lack of exclusives from 2013-2016 and continued failure in the racing genre, just as the lack of upcoming Xbox first-party stuff is criticized. Criticize Sony for the fact that they'll soon have a weaker console, just as the Xbox was when that was true of it. Criticize Sony for anti-consumer practices in disallowing cross-play just like the Xbox "no used games" refrain. Hold them to the same standard, and we're all better off.

    Avatar image for oursin_360
    OurSin_360

    6675

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    Crossplay would be a benefit to the industry as a whole IMO, but sony still refuses online refunds so don't count on it any time soon.

    Avatar image for odinsmana
    odinsmana

    982

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    #9  Edited By odinsmana

    FWIW, I totally get why Sony doesn't want this. What I don't get is why Sony seemingly gets a free pass from the gaming community on this kind of stuff. Are people really still that butthurt about the previous Xbox regime's missteps? It's like Sony gets to have their cake and eat it, too. Everyone fawned over the PS4 for being the slightly more powerful console (which didn't really manifest meaningfully at all) and tolerated what was basically three years of the console having little to nothing in the way of exclusives outside of Bloodborne, while completely ignoring the Xbox One as it put out some great exclusives like Titanfall, Sunset Overdrive, multiple Forzas, Halo, Gears, etc. Then Sony finally gets their first-party shit together about this time last year, and everyone lauds them endlessly for it, which is all well and good. Meanwhile, Xbox, responding to the demonstrated consumer love of "power", creates a fucking beast of a console with a significant power upgrade over any console out there, and suddenly the refrain from gamers is "but where are the exclusives?"

    I don`t think this is entirely fair. PS4 has definitely had more exclusives than Bloodborne. Just off the top off my head there is Infamous and Until Dawn for example. Xbox probably had more good exclusives during the first couple of years after the new consoles were released, but I don`t think it was as barebones as you make it out to be. While I haven`t actually heard praise for Sony`s exclusives this year I think they more than deserve it. They have also absolutely been killing it. Even if you only count games that appear only on Playstation platform you have Persona 5 (my current GOTY), Yakuza 0 (would have been my GOTY if not for Persona), Yakuza Kiwami, Uncharted Lost Legacy, Horizon Zero Dawn, Nioh, Gravity Rush 2, Kingdom Hearts 2.8, MLB the show, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane trilogy, FFXII: Zodiac age and probably some games I have missed. That`s a pretty insane line up of exclusives. There are several games on that list that would be GOTY material in lesser years. If we also count games that are only console exclusive to PS4 (which is probably fair considering all Xbox exclusives are also on PC now) we have games like Nier: Automata, Danganronpa V3, Pyre and a whole bunch of other games.

    Avatar image for schrodngrsfalco
    SchrodngrsFalco

    4616

    Forum Posts

    454

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 1

    User Lists: 7

    Regarding Phil and MS XBOX team, I really wonder if/how they'll change should they become the install-base leader again. Phil has only had the reigns from behind but he seems like a genuine duder. It would be a good test.

    Avatar image for notnert427
    notnert427

    2389

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 4

    User Lists: 1

    @notnert427 said:

    FWIW, I totally get why Sony doesn't want this. What I don't get is why Sony seemingly gets a free pass from the gaming community on this kind of stuff. Are people really still that butthurt about the previous Xbox regime's missteps? It's like Sony gets to have their cake and eat it, too. Everyone fawned over the PS4 for being the slightly more powerful console (which didn't really manifest meaningfully at all) and tolerated what was basically three years of the console having little to nothing in the way of exclusives outside of Bloodborne, while completely ignoring the Xbox One as it put out some great exclusives like Titanfall, Sunset Overdrive, multiple Forzas, Halo, Gears, etc. Then Sony finally gets their first-party shit together about this time last year, and everyone lauds them endlessly for it, which is all well and good. Meanwhile, Xbox, responding to the demonstrated consumer love of "power", creates a fucking beast of a console with a significant power upgrade over any console out there, and suddenly the refrain from gamers is "but where are the exclusives?"

    I don`t think this is entirely fair. PS4 has definitely had more exclusives than Bloodborne. Just off the top off my head there is Infamous and Until Dawn for example. Xbox probably had more good exclusives during the first couple of years after the new consoles were released, but I don`t think it was as barebones as you make it out to be. While I haven`t actually heard praise for Sony`s exclusives this year I think they more than deserve it. They have also absolutely been killing it. Even if you only count games that appear only on Playstation platform you have Persona 5 (my current GOTY), Yakuza 0 (would have been my GOTY if not for Persona), Yakuza Kiwami, Uncharted Lost Legacy, Horizon Zero Dawn, Nioh, Gravity Rush 2, Kingdom Hearts 2.8, MLB the show, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane trilogy, FFXII: Zodiac age and probably some games I have missed. That`s a pretty insane line up of exclusives. There are several games on that list that would be GOTY material in lesser years. If we also count games that are only console exclusive to PS4 (which is probably fair considering all Xbox exclusives are also on PC now) we have games like Nier: Automata, Danganronpa V3, Pyre and a whole bunch of other games.

    We could probably go tit for tat on simply naming off exclusives and enter some really subjective territory, but I think it's absolutely a fair assessment to say that the Xbox One offered far more in terms of first-party stuff until about Fall 2016, at which point I 100% agree that Sony started to hit their stride and delivered there. Even Sony's own marketing slogans basically agreed. "Greatness Awaits" was their message early on, largely aimed at satiating people who were literally "awaiting" quality first-party content. Then when this wait persisted for longer than expected, they shifted to "The Best Place to Play", in hopes of pushing the idea that the PS4 offered the "best" version of games based on hardware (even though that typically proved nonexistent or negligible in reality) to try and justify the console's merit on third-party content. To their credit, things have changed there and they have been killing it recently on first-party games, and I'm glad for that, but it took way too long and they got way too much of a pass for it.

    Re-reading it, the earlier rant may have come off a little more "console war" than I'd like, and I genuinely don't want to just sit here and trash Sony or the PS4, outside of some personal disappointment with them basically abandoning the racing genre when I once had a real soft spot for the Gran Turismo series. Mostly, this is coming from a place of real frustration at the prevailing narrative from the gaming world towards the PS4/Xbox, which seems to be conditional arguments to tout the more popular console, which is the PS4. Early on in this console cycle while seemingly everyone was shitting on everything Xbox and throwing money at Sony, I was kinda waving my arms and pointing out that Titanfall and Forza Horizon 2 in particular were fucking awesome, but no one seemed to really care until their sequels came out on multiple platforms, and suddenly people acknowledged the existence/quality of those games, although still not their excellent progenitors.

    It has been extremely annoying watching the same people who were touting the PS4's "power" and acting like first-party games didn't mean anything during the first few years of this console cycle do a full-on 180 when the situation flipped to where the PS4 will be the less powerful console (by a significant margin) with a better first-party lineup. I don't have much interest in making "xbone 720p, LOLZ"-level comments to try and mock the PS4's relative hardware deficiencies once the X comes out, but it would be really fucking refreshing if the people who pulled that shit a few years ago actually backed up their mouth and switched sides to adopt the most powerful console since that's what they claim to want, or would simply STFU with the convenient flip-flop about how now first-party games are what matters. It just seems like in the minds of most gamers, Sony can't lose and Xbox can't win, no matter what the companies actually do, and that's some real bullshit.

    This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:

    Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.

    Comment and Save

    Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.