On Wednesday, we reported that PlayStation 4 users were being blocked from moving their Fortnite accounts onto the Switch. All signs point to Sony and their continued stance against cross-play integration with other consoles for third-party games as being behind the blockage. Thursday, a spokeswoman for Sony released a statement to BBC News addressing the issue:
We’re always open to hearing what the PlayStation community is interested in to enhance their gaming experience.
With … more than 80 million monthly active users on PlayStation Network, we’ve built a huge community of gamers who can play together on Fortnite and all online titles.
We also offer Fortnite cross-play support with PC, Mac, iOS, and Android devices, expanding the opportunity for Fortnite fans on PS4 to play with even more gamers on other platforms.
We have nothing further to add beyond this at this point.
Many within the gaming community are not happy with Sony’s response to the situation, calling them out for what they perceive as a corporate non-answer.
Hate to see it as I’m a PS fan but this Fortnite account thing is going to come back to haunt the PlayStation brand in a big way if not actually addressed in a satisfying way to this audience. The statement they put out was a huge mistake/miscalculation.
— Chris Johnston E3 (@superpac) June 14, 2018
Time will tell if Sony is willing to change their minds on cross-play functionality with other consoles in the future. For now, PS4 owners who wish to play Fortnite on the Switch or Xbox One will have to create an all-new Epic Games account in order to play the game, which means losing any items and progress counts.