Epic Games' latest survival game Fortnite briefly allowed for crossplay between Xbox One & PlayStation 4 gamers before disabling the functionality, as reported by Kotaku UK.
Some video games allow for "crossplay," the ability for gamers on different platforms to play in the same game world. Typically, this will mean that PC & Xbox One player can play together or PC & PlayStation 4 players can play together. However, there is a distinct lack of scenarios where PlayStation 4 and Xbox One gamers have been able to play games together - save for a brief few hours where gamers found themselves playing Fortnite with compatriots from another console ecosystem.
A PlayStation 4 player named PRE_-CISION-_ was one of five people remaining in Fortnite's Battle Royale PvP gameplay mode when he was killed by a player with an unusual name for the console. A search for that player's tag on PS4 proved fruitless, and on a lark, he searched for the name on Xbox Live only to find that the player did indeed exist in that environment. Somehow, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players were filtered into the same match and able to play with one another. Around the same time, Redditor /u/PyroBlack76 posted an image purportedly showing the same game on the two different consoles.
Epic has referred to the crossplay situation as a "bug" relating to a configuration issue that has now been fixed.
Clearly, crossplay between the PS4 and XB1 is possible on a technical level. Sony seems to be the lone holdout against this, with the PlayStation 4 being notably absent from the list of platforms on titles such as Rocket League and Minecraft that allow players of different platforms to play together. PlayStation global sales and marketing head Jim Ryan stated to Eurogamer in June that there was no "live conversation" going on internally regarding the PS4 allowing crossplay with other consoles.
What do you think of Fortnite accidentally enabling crossplay between the Xbox One and PlayStation 4? Would you like to be able to play console games alongside your friends who own different consoles? Let us know in the comments below!
