In a bid to further prevent any kind of cross-play connectivity between competitive platforms, Sony has made it where PS4 accounts linked to their Epic Games accounts for Fortnite are prohibited from logging into the game for the Nintendo Switch, thus preventing players from being able to connect their accounts.
Niche Gamer spotted the news when a user attempted to link their Epic Account with their PS4 and then sign into Fortnite on the Nintendo Switch. They were greeted with the following message…
“This Fortnite account is associated with a platform that does not allow it to operate on Switch. Neither the Fortnite website nor Epic Customer Service are able to change this. To play Fortnite on Switch, please create a new account.”
This is more of Sony’s efforts to keep gamers from playing on their PS4 with Nintendo Switch or Xbox One users.
Microsoft and Nintendo have an alternative approach to this, allowing console gamers to cross-play with one another along with being able to play with PC and mobile gamers.
Given that Microsoft and Nintendo are playing catch-up with Sony, they’ve been a lot more open to cross-platform compatibility in order to lure gamers into playing. Meanwhile, with Sony being the leader of eighth-gen by a sizable margin, they can afford to be anti-consumer by denying PS4 gamers the right to play with other console owners. You can, however, play some games between PC and PS4, but you aren’t able to play PS4 games with Nintendo Switch or Xbox One gamers.
I imagine if the next generation doesn’t go so well for Sony, ninth gen could see Sony taking on a completely different viewpoint, desperately trying to adopt cross-platform play, which was something they weren’t against back during seventh gen but it was something Microsoft had no interest in as they had taken a large amount of market share with the Xbox 360.
Anyway, Fortnite is available on all major gaming platforms and on PC, for free.