While there’s still no news on an official release date for we poor second class Android citizens, all you lucky Switch players today finally get to jump into the zany Fortnite Battle Royale action!
The news broke at this year’s Nintendo E3 showcase earlier today and the game is now available for free download, but it comes with a major hitch. Even though this is supposed to be Nintendo’s shining moment, somehow Sony showed up to cast a cloud over the announcement.
It seemed like we were moving towards a golden age of crossplay between consoles with Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo showing more willingness to engage in inter-platform play.
Those hopes have been dashed for full Fortnite Switch crossplay, which is currently available for Xbox One, PC, and iOS users.. but not for PS4, as confirmed by Epic’s Nick Chester in this tweet:
That’s an odd oversight for a free-to-play game that’s focused on syncing between different platforms so you can pick up and play on any console or iOS device.
Bizarrely, its not just crossplay that’s affected here. After the game went live, Switch players who originally created their Epic account via PS4 (or who linked their PC account to the PlayStation Network) discovered a little problem… you can’t use your PS4-linked Epic account on the Switch version.
This was pointed out by GameOverGreggy over on Twitter, who was faced with the Login Failed screenshot below. There’s one line in particular to focus on here in the error message: “neither the Fortnite website nor Epic customer service are able to change this.”
Epic Games obviously knows this practice is going to tick people off, and are also washing their hands of the decision, since it clearly wasn’t up to them. There’s no point in emailing customer support to complain, since they can’t do anything to help resolve the problem.
You might be thinking this isn’t that big a deal and just requires an extra step before you can play, however, un-linking your Epic account from PSN does not make it work, either! Once an account has been linked to PS4, it is forever off limits to other platforms.
In other words, you have to make an entirely new Epic account if you previously played Fortnite on the PS4 and want to play on the Switch. Everything associated with your Fortnite account – your ranking, your Battle Pass, your skins – are all useless on the Switch for previous PS4 players.
There’s been no official statement from Sony, Epic, or Nintendo at this point as to why this would be the case, but it isn’t hard to guess. Since its only the PSN-linked accounts that are affected, the issue seems to land solely on Sony’s doorstep and not Nintendo’s.
It seems clear this is a case of Sony forcing exclusivity on the PS4 to try to maintain market dominance as the #1 console, but its causing so much backlash that it may end up having the opposite effect.
Right now Twitter, Twitch, Facebook, and YouTube are lit up with comments from players vowing to unlink their Epic account from the PlayStation Network and just start playing exclusively on Xbox or Switch.
For those who have a decent gaming rig, just switching entirely to PC might be the way to go, since you can then link however you want to other consoles (although obviously don’t link to PSN if you plan on playing on Switch later).
Have you come across the issue, and what do you think of Sony disallowing Epic accounts to be utilized on other platforms? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, and be sure to share your best Fortnite kills and deaths on the Switch!
