Sony surrendered, while Fortnite and PlayStation fans won

"Sony’s cross-platform beta for Fortnite — launching today — feels like a white flag flown in the face of the future. The PlayStation platform was the last holdout on cross-play, fighting the idea that software is more powerful than hardware. But right now, nothing is more powerful than Fortnite. This is a very big deal." - Ben Kuchera

[SpaceRanger]

Lmao surrendered?

How can Playstation "surrender" when they're being begged by other fanbases to let them play with the Playstation fanbase?

[Switch4One]

How dumb does a person have to be to believe that a corporation would implement a policy change based on demands from their competitors?
You are deluding yourself to make yourself feel better about whatever imaginary console battle you feel you've lost with this concession Sony has made.

[deathtok]

This isn’t unusual. Corporations react to competitive pressure regularly. In gaming, there are many examples too to controller design, services, pricing, advertising, used games, etc.

[AspiringProGenji]

double post

[OB1Biker]

You are not making much sense in replying to a simple statement :
'Sony surrended' is ridiculous
SpaceRanger rightfully questions Polygons spin.

[AAWELLS09]

Very well said @Switch4One and @Madmoose. Just overlook the kids.

[Realms]

@Switch4One

I don't doubt that some PS gamers wanted cross play and apparently enough of them wanted the feature otherwise it wouldn't be happening, but this fake outrage by Xbox and Nintendo fanboys is very much real they where constantly trolling any cross play related article so don't play coy. In the end it doesn't affect me one way or another so it makes no sense that one should care that much about it and I suspect many Sony gamers feel the same way. Interestingly enough though it was always xbox fanboys being the loudest that Sony was being anti consumer well their you have it they wanted cross play and there it is inevitably they will find something else to complain about though.

[Muzikguy]

Who’s deluding themselves?

I’m just wondering what asinine thing people will be trolling Sony for next. I still don’t care about crossplay with Fortnite.

[Quatron]

He didn't say "demands from competitors" brainless retard. The third party companies are the ones bitching about this.

[Crazyglues]

Here's what I don't get, why does Xbox players want to play with Sony players so bad, if you want to play with Sony players so bad, buy a PlayStation... seriously why, why is this such a big deal to xbox players...?

If you think gaming with PlayStation players is that good, shouldn't you go get a PlayStation then....

[sagapo]

I think it’s more about on what console your friends are playing their games on. A lot of people just buy 1 console, if some friends buy a different one, crossplay is a good thing here.

[gamer7804]

nice false premise argument there. I know people on both sides of the fence, and both were excited about this announcement. It's a precedent that will allow more people to play together instead of either not being able to play together or have to decide which platform to get the game on. My only concern is that Sony will only extend this to a select number of games instead of leaving it up to developers to decide.

[Kados]

It is less about wanting to play with "Sony" players, and more about wanting to play with "more" players. A larger community to play with is always a good thing. Pretty much every intelligent gamer whether predominantly Sony focued, or MS, is open to the idea. Even Sony themselfs have now realised the benefits to players and have changed their policy, strange that some of their fanbase is still so brand feral they refuse to accept it.

Not only does this create a larger playerbase in general for gamers to interact with, as other have already pointed out, it also allows people to play with there friends, regardless of each others platform of choice. You can stay brand loyal and buy A PS4, even if your friend only has an XB1, and still play together.

[AshleeEmerson]

There's been so many games that go under because the user base drowns out... For example, I think Firewall (PSVR) is an incredible game and I would HATE to see it go under because of the lack of people. IF Xbox had a VR then cross play would bring more hope for the developers game to stay afloat. That's what it's all about for me, the ability to let these games live longer.

[sampsonon]

@sagapo: "A lot of people just buy 1 console, if some friends buy a different one, crossplay is a good thing here."

Well that all depends on one's point of view. millions most likely bought a ps4 because their friends or family owned one. now those sales going forward are non existent, which means a loss in revenue, which in turn means someone either going to pay for it or sony won't make as many single player high quality games.

we shouldn't want these companies to become too close to each other because they will raise the price of everything and pinch our wallets.

this will be bad for the consumer in the long run disguised as a win for the gamer.

[AAWELLS09]

You're looking at this from a console war fanboy perspective. You're making it seem as tho its just Xbox players just dying to play with the "superior PS community". You're totally ignoring all the pro-consumer reasons why this is a good thing. I'm not going to explain any of it to you as you dont think properly and I'd be wasting my time but the adults in the room understand it all without it being spelled out for them. Go ahead and continue your fanboy wars. You think like a child plain and simple....

[SPEAKxTHExTRUTH]

Do you have any evidence that Xbox fans are begging Sony for fortnite cross play? Is there some kind of Xbox fan site asking for this with hundreds of thousands of verifiable Xbox owners asking for this? You have a link or are you being a sheep and going with what n4g fanboys say?

[KickSpinFilter]

Well it was an arguing point over why XB1 was "better" for Xberts. Now that's it's in place they have lost that arguing point. I personally did not care if PS4 had it or did not. It's cool it's there as long as you can filter out keyboard/mouse users and have Mods where it is XB1 vs PS4. End of the day no sleep lost over it.
Now with PS5 in 2020 it better have BC with PS4 games or I'm gonna be BS. At the start of a console BC is very important, 4 years in however it's just a cute novelty.

[BalzMcDeath]

I have read some stupid comments in my time. This though, takes the cake.

[letsa_go]

They wanted to experience the superior PSN. lol

[EmperorDalek]

No one begged, they merely stated how anti-consumer it is. However, Sony made a good decision here... No one is negatively affected, yet there are people who will benefit from it. No one loses anything.

[ninsigma]

Well we don't know if there's a negative effect. This has never happened before so we don't know what could fall out from it. Most likely nothing negative will happen but we don't actually know until this is in full effect for some time.

[Shikoku]

It wasnt anti consumer any other gen before this, it wasnt anti consumer last gen when x360 didnt do it, all sony did was had xbone a boom for no reason. Want play with your friends? Buy the console they have pretty simple

[bluefox755]

It's no more anticonsumer than exclusives. Why should one some gamers have access to games that others don't? Why is that fair? Why not get rid of exclusives entirely, "No one loses anything."

[EmperorDalek]

@Shikoku
PSN got hacked last gen, so MS would have had security concerns over it. Xbox Live required a subscription, PSN didn't, so that would have put them in a bad light. Now that PSN is more secure and subscription-based, Microsoft has no reason to deny it. Sony didn't really make much of an effort to make it happen last gen either, from my understanding.

@bluefox755
Obviously Sony, MS and Nintendo would be losing out on profits for their games, and players who potentially bought a console just to its exclusives would lose out too.
I honestly can't find the words to describe how stupid that comparison is. Literally no one thinks that, you just killed a few of my brain cells.

[ShadowWolf712]

It's literally not anti-consumer. You're not losing anything, nothing is being taken away in this context. We don't live in a black=and-white world of "pro" or "anti" consumer moves. Some are neutral. Their previous stance was a neutral one.

[EmperorDalek]

@ShadowWolf
Some people will benefit from crossplay, developers want it, and from the sounds of it, it requires little from Sony's end to implement. Sony didn't have any real reason not to allow it, which is why they made this positive move. You don't have to "lose" something for it to be an anti-consumer decision.

So based on this, it would be an anti-consumer decision. Even if it would be a very minor "offence" (for lack of a better word.) They've made a good decision, no matter how you look at it.

[subtenko]

hey we should be able to share cars together dude, i got a 1970 chevy you can drive it and let me drive your 2018 lexis. dont be anti sharing bro

[Realms]

No one begged? You should go to one of the many articles written about cross play most of the negativity was coming from xbox fanboys. So they didn't beg they just bitched and moaned about a feature that many PS gamers didn't care about one way or the other. It benefits all gamers sure but not all gamers cared about it not nearly as much as xbox fanboys you take your guess as to why that was.

[Obscure_Observer]

@SpaceRanger

"How can Playstation "surrender" when they're being begged by other fanbases to let them play with the Playstation fanbase?"

Well, seems like it since they were pretty much against Crossplay between consoles just a week ago?

Whatever happened about their stance on security, business and "safe environment", i´m just happy that they made the right call. ;)

[CarlDechance]

"Well, seems like it since they were pretty much against Crossplay between consoles just a week ago? "

Actually, Shawn Laydon said back in June that they were working on something.

"We're hearing it. We're looking at a lot of the possibilities. You can imagine that the circumstances around that affect a lot more than just one game. I'm confident we'll get to a solution which will be understood and accepted by our gaming community, while at the same time supporting our business."

https://www.eurogamer.net/a...

[SpaceRanger]

“Whatever happened about their stance on security, business and "safe environment"...”

They literally addressed all that in their statement.

[rainslacker]

So. Lets get the chain of events for this out of the way.

1. Rocket League devs says that Sony said no to cross play when he asked, because Sony didn't have any policies to implement cross play with other consoles, because the other consoles didn't allow it either.
2. A couple other devs have a similar thing happen.
3. Spencer says how he's open to it.
4. a couple years pass, and it seems Sony isn't interested.
5. Almost 4 weeks ago, Sony said that they didn't allow cross play because they believe they had the best place to play.

I left out quite a few events for brevity, because we both know how most of it played out.

So, within a month, lets look at what transpired to this current "surrender".

Sony decided to allow it, or at least test the waters.
They created policies that devs could use to meet compliance standards like they have now.
MS, Sony, and Nintendo all got together and worked out all the details which would be required between all of them.
Sony came to terms with their policies.
Sony worked with Epic to implement it, coupled with their policies, as well as MS and Nintendos, to start a beta.
Within all this time, they managed to resolve their stance on security and business, or at least, they're using the beta to see if it will work for them, because again, they're testing the waters.
Sony rolls out a beta.....and we'll see where it goes from here.

So, you assert that Sony seemed against it, which I'd say is true. But I'd also posit that Sony has been working on it a lot longer than people may give them credit for. Policy changes of this magnitude don't just roll out in a week, and I'd imagine any stance they've had on it more recently was because they weren't really sure if it'd end up going forward.

This wasn't any kind of surrender. Sony was never fighting.

[chiefJohn117]

Space you sound stupid on so many levels.

[SpaceRanger]

Good contribution to the topic. You make such good points. /s

[chiefJohn117]

1. It wasn't just the "other fan base" asking
2. You can surrender to anyone. Surrendering isn't always in house/ to peers.
3. If it was just Xbox guys and Nintendo guys asking and not 1 ps guy. Wtf do you still call it? 😆 you're taking it too literally like Xbox dude put a gun to sony head and said do it or we won't buy ps. (Wouldnt make sense obviously) but enough talk caused them to "throw a bone" (aka surrender in this sense), if you look at it as only the other guys wanted it. they still caved to the other guys wanting it.

[NatFanBoyRestricted]

Delusions on N4G. The PS4 Reddit where there's a much larger PS fanbase seem to actually like it.

[neomahi]

They're not being begged, man. Its a vicious fanboy plot to get Sony to buckle their knees and fall, now they're the laughing stock of the gaming community, they got Sony to budge, it shows weakness.

[rainslacker]

I never saw Sony fighting the cross play battle. They just said no to devs who asked, which was their policy for so long. They haven't surrendered, they just made policies which they're now putting into beta form.

What sucks is for the next decade, we're going to hear the media patting itself on the back for fighting the good fight, and fan boys against Sony acting like this was a impulse decision by Sony because they couldn't take the heat.

It is a win for gamers though, so that's a good thing.

[Prem8tuaProcrastin8a]

They caved because genuine ps fans along with the rest of the industry, including developers and publishers, demanded they change their stance. Even rockstar, the biggest name in the business, wanted this.

[NeoGamer232]

If it wasn't from the Sony fanbase then why would they do it?

That is like saying Ford owners want their features on Chevrolet vehicles and Chevrolet saying, Ford fans begged us to put feature X on Chevy vehicles so we did.

[NovusTerminus]

It's not a surrender. It's a smart move that was made late. But it won't really hurt them in any way.

[Switch4One]

I swear every move Sony makes is smart in the eyes of N4G.
It was a smart move when they refused to allow crossplay and now it's a smart move when they allow it.
Heaven alive! People are sheep here.

Ps before I'm accused of being a bot or drone, my PSN id is hayted21

[UltraNova]

So in your opinion, what was the actual smart move here? Sony sticking to their guns or allowing it?

Btw cool it off a bit.

[AspiringProGenji]

I never said they were smart for not allowing crossplay, just that the had the right to refuse it. Whether they were smart or not according to you the truth is it didn’t hurt them, and now allowing it will just take the media off their shoulders

[Dark_Knightmare2]

Fix your comment it should be allow crossplay with other consoles since they’ve allowed crossplay since last gen

[CarlDechance]

"I swear every move Sony makes is smart in the eyes of N4G. "

Why do people say idiotic things like this? NovusTerminus isn't N4G. No one person is. You are attributing things multiple people may or may not have said to a single entity: N4G. Why don't you step back and think about how stupid that really is.

[Switch4One]

Carl, Genji was one of the people who were defending Sony's decision not to allow crossplay and now are flipping and calling it a great move. Pffft.

Ultra this is undoubtedly a smart move, I'm just irked by the spineless flipfloppers who side with Sony no matter what.

[CarlDechance]

"Carl, Genji was one of the people who were defending Sony's decision not to allow crossplay and now are flipping and calling it a great move. Pffft. "

lol....you weren't responding to Gengi. You were responding to NovusTerminus' comment of 4 hours ago. Now you are 'flipping' your comment over to Genji who replied to you?

"spineless flipfloppers"

You are doing some flipping of your own.

[cyclindk]

One could argue... that opinions can and do change yes? Which might suggest "flipflopping," as you put it, is a sign of flexibility in light of a new perspective? Or, simply blind loyalty as you suggested. It's really all about context and the details on a case-by-case basis.

So it would be unwise to group each and every naysayer and each and every "champion of the cause" into any single category of person. I have no vested interest one way or another, just arguing for the sake of arguing cuz I'm wait'n for good games to come out...

[AspiringProGenji]

You are just one of those obnoxious users who always want to put words on everyone’s mouth. I haven’t said this is a great move at all, and like I said my opinion on the matter always was that Sony has the right to refuse crossplay, or if they allow it then so be it. I am not flip flopping at this as this change does nothing for me personally

[Thundercat77]

The same way Sony was critized when they refused and now are also critized for allowing it? You should look at both sides of the coin.

[Cohagen420]

They released crossplay before Fallout 76 and a day after the Forza Horizon 4 reviews came out. Now Bethesda and the Xbox f2p Paywall are getting roasted, Forza is barely charting.

Seems like a pretty smart move because it wasn't negatively affecting them one way or the other.

[subtenko]

theres always somebody here posting that....way to go

[salmonade]

Sheep? lol, your A-hole has been reamed out by Microsoft for so long you're becoming extremely bitter about things.

The whole point was the majority didn't really care one way or the other. Sony don't want crossplay? Great. Who really cares, it won't affect anything. Sony now want crossplay? Great for the people who wanted it. The majority don't really care. Good for Sony.

YOU UNDERSTAND NOW? Either way, the vast majority didn't care. One way or the other. Sony is King and takes risks and gives us amazing exclusive games to play that we can't play anywhere else. UNDERSTAND?

[princejb134]

its a dum business move because sony was getting a small percentage for every micro transaction that was done on fortnite. If the gamer buys the costume on another console and than plays on sony console than they lose that money

[KickSpinFilter]

Who are you to say that Sony are not, perhaps something has been worked out behind closed doors.

[rainslacker]

At the same time though, if they allow it, it means they can also get players to play on their system.

Consider this scenario.

A player plays their games on Xbox. Sony doesn't allow cross buy....which is the bigger issue with fortnite. But they also have friends on the Xbox. At some point, they may be swayed to get a PS4, but don't, because they don't want to give up what they have on XBox.

But with this new policy, now they don't have to worry about it.

Its hypothetical of course, but for every hypothetical scenario against, a scenario for it can also be stated.

What it comes down to is that in the grand scheme of things, they aren't likely to lose much, or gain much either way....or the losses and gains will outweigh one another.

[rainslacker]

I still think there was a lot going on in the background that we were never made aware of. There was really no transparency from either company about what was happening between them.

I think it would make quite an interesting article to know the details, but nowadays, it would likely just turn two sides against one another as they both seek to find any little detail about who was at fault for it taking so long. Everything seems to have to be black and white to some people, and when it comes to business, there is lots of gray area where most things take place....especially when it comes to policy on how to conduct business.

[StormLegend]

Don’t make it seem like we was crying for cross play

[TekoIie]

Well I'm pretty sure many here were crying about it even being news and did their very best to make it look like they didn't care but outside of n4g people didn't like the move.

[SegaGamer]

Actually, anybody outside of N4G that I spoke too didn't even give a damn about it. The biggest complaints I seen were coming from the media, Xbox and Nintendo fans.

It's good for gamers because they get more players to play with if it happens, but i'm not sure what Sony themselves get out of it. Oh well, not my problem, cross play, no cross play, I'm not really fussed either way.

[Linktothepast]

Segagamer is spot on. Speaking of which Tekolie - you were one of the loudest voices about cross play on this site. Do you even own a ps4?

[trooper_]

Oh cut the crap.

Crossplay is a luxury, not a must like these stupid articles were making it out to be.

[G3ng4r]

@Linktothepast While I can't speak for Tekolie I'll admit that I don't care about fortnite but I'm grateful for the controversy. Your variety of fanboys here are far too proud and boastful of their shrill mounds of plastic. These tears are the most delicious of all.

[Linktothepast]

@G3ng4r
As sad as that is, at least you're honest. I hope you find more reasons to enjoy your console, while spending less time hating on others.

[Imalwaysright]

SegaGamer

Is that a joke? There are are 80+ million PS4 out there. You speaking with your friends is absolutely irrelevant to this conversation. Sony did it, it's done and it is pro-consumer move. The fact that it is a pro-consumer move is enough for Sony to benefit from it.

[Cohagen420]

Right because the sales charts showed far less PS4 consoles being moved, oh wait..

[rainslacker]

@Segagamer

I never really saw that many Nintendo fans griping about it. They didn't even see that fussed about having it with Xbox either. It always struck me as an air of indifference. That same indifference is pretty much how the Sony fan base felt about the feature since it was implemented with FFXI. It's the same thing they seem to feel this gen as well. I think most of the push back from the Sony side came with the constant "attacks" on Sony over the issue, because it blew up pretty fast, and practically out of nowhere. Then it was pushed constantly because it was about the only real bad thing that could be pushed to criticize Sony, as the other stuff is just more annoyances

[TekoIie]

@SegaGamer

"Actually, anybody outside of N4G that I spoke too didn't even give a damn about it."

Anecdotal. Take a look outside of your friendship group and N4G and you'd see that based on comment sections even people who didn't care said that Sony was in the wrong for blocking it. Check a few places like Reddit as an example.

@Linktothepast

"Speaking of which Tekolie - you were one of the loudest voices about cross play on this site. Do you even own a ps4?"

Not sure why its relevant but yeah been playing Spiderman. And wasn't the loudest just irritated as to how no one on this site was able to answer a simple question I kept asking which was what is the drawback to the consumer in having access to crossplay as an option? No one on this site answered that question and just deflected to something else which is very telling.

If you want you can be the first to tell me why we shouldn't have crossplay across all systems go for it if thats where your opinion lines up.

@Rainslacker

"That same indifference is pretty much how the Sony fan base felt about the feature since it was implemented with FFXI."

That's not true at all. All you need to do is look at the comment section on this site when we had Portal 2 crossplay announced and it was overwhelmingly positive. But when Sony became the biggest wall to having full crossplay across all systems everyone goes into damage control mode. I think it shows more people here are fanboys if anything and willing to flip their opinion if their favourite company does the same.

[BLow]

Now, I hope certain people who cried anti-consumer will get on the only device in the world that charges you to play free to play games. I find it funny how you can scream anti-consumer when the device your playing on is literally anti-consumer on the same game at the same time. Fanboy logic.

Now what do you have to complain about? No more crossplay talk and even PSNow has downloads on games. What goalposts are going to shift now? Where is all that Sony is arrogant again talk now? I don't care if how long it took? It really hasn't been that long anyways but hey that's the narrative. It's not like they don't already have the most crossplay titles of any console (with PC). But let's not state the facts.

All I'm asking is for certain people to put this much energy into MS to get requiring Live to play FREE TO PLAY games is anti-consumer as well. Time for that to change....Now you can play with the fanbase that you hate the most lol. Never understood that one either.🤔

[EmperorDalek]

Surrendered? Even if you personally don't benefit from it, there are those who will. It doesn't detract from anyone whatsoever, so I reckon only crybaby fanboys will complain.

It will certainly benefit games with lower userbases, no one can deny that.

[Inzo]

Yeah, PS4 gamers dont really care.

[Linktothepast]

Hilariously enough, most if not all of your disagrees will be from other fanbases

[Switch4One]

In this echo chamber? Of course not. You lot would rather believe Sony make decisions on policies based on the wants of Xbox and Nintendo gamers. Yeah that's far more plausible than the obvious alternative

[CarlDechance]

"In this echo chamber? Of course not. "

Right. Only PS4 fans can click the agree and disagree links . Really man....just stop posting.

[Linktothepast]

But again, as is evident from the comment histories of those most vocal about it - those pushing for it the most were other fanbases.

That's not to say there weren't ps4 fans that wanted it, too. But they generally weren't the ones lauding Sony over it.

Goes some way in explaining why locking f2p games behind a paywall wasn't a bigger deal. Thats far more anti-consumer imho.

[CarlDechance]

@Linktothepast

Ultimately this was a business decision. Ben Kuchera got that much right. Fortnite is a powerful beast. If it were not for the influence of that one game, we would not be talking about this right now.

Whether this cross play makes it way over to the handful of other games that have cross console platform play like on Xbox and Switch....we will see. This announcement was only about Fortnite.

[Switch4One]

Suck rope Carl, I'm not going to stop commenting just because you don't like what I'm saying. Everyone knows N4G is a Yes Man to Playstation so of course when someone claims PS4 gamers didn't care most of the peanut gallery is going to agree despite logic indicating otherwise

[CarlDechance]

lol.....I was trying to help you out. You keep posting ridiculous crap.

Yeah yeah.....every xbox fanboy on n4g whines and cries about how n4g is beholden to PS is some sort of fantastical way. They can't say how really. OH....that's right your "logic" consists entirely of "everyone knows". That's brilliant man.

[Imalwaysright]

I disagreed because no one speaks for me.

[Linktothepast]

Look closer, i wasnt speaking for everyone - "most if not all"
Judging by some of the most active posters in this thread I was spot on.

[Obscure_Observer]

@CarlDechance

"Ultimately this was a business decision. Ben Kuchera got that much right. Fortnite is a powerful beast. If it were not for the influence of that one game, we would not be talking about this right now."

If you really think that, one can tell that you don´t understand nothing about this Crossplay between consoles controvesy regarding Sony is. Nothing! This is was quoted by YOU:

"We're hearing it. We're looking at a lot of the possibilities. You can imagine that the circumstances around that affect A LOT MORE THAN JUST ONE GAME."

A lot more than just one game. So if you think Sony made this decision based on one game alone, you´re clearly mistaken since all of this controversy started over Crossplay on Minecraft and Rocked League! The bigger issue regarding Fortnite wasn´t Crossplay. It was CROSS-PROGRESSION!

Besides, Epic didn´t dropped any pressure on Sony! Fortnite, PS4, Switch, Xbox One players/owners, the media, and big publishers like Bethesda who did it.

To this very day, Epic remains silent over Sony´s stance regarding Crossplay.

[gamer7804]

already proven wrong with Sony's pressured announcement, also why are you commenting here if you don't care?

[CarlDechance]

I doubt very seriously that the "pressure" on this came from the PS4 community. This was about Fortnite and all the many dollars going into that game. It isn't like Sony was seeing a mass exodus of gamers to Xbox and Switch over this.

[gamer7804]

@CarlDechance. Really? The community split over cross progression being forced to leave behind their ps4 progress, and now not being able to play with friends who stayed on ps4? riiiiiight. At least be fair and say it came from multiple sides.

[CarlDechance]

"community split over cross progression being forced to leave behind their ps4 progress, and now not being able to play with friends who stayed on ps4"

Document that then. Where was this massive division within in the PS4 community? Are you talking about gamers who were playing Fornite on multiple platforms such as PS4 and Switch? That caused Sony to cave to cross play? Dude...that is a subset of a subset of a subset of PS4 gamers. Come on.....that is not a "split community".

Multiple sides? Sure. 1) PR. That was a battle they could not win. No matter what. 2) Money. Fortnite is extremely lucrative and as the article says....it is a force that Sony simply could not ignore.

[Inzo]

Firstly if anyone was pressuring Sony it came from devs and the likes of MS but hey if you can offer proof that pressure came from PS fans then be my guest... As if Sony gets pressured into doing anything.

Secondly, I care very much for what Sony does as game distributor and developer because I am invested in their product. What I dont care about is cross-play i.e. if Sony implements cross-play then great, if they dont thats great too, I really dont care and this has been my outlook since this whole thing has started (if you dont believe me you are more than welcome to look at my comment history) I can promise you that most PS gamers feel exactly the same way I do. Cross-play really isnt that important what is important is that Sony keeps providing us with great quality games.

[Obscure_Observer]

@CarlDechance

"I doubt very seriously that the "pressure" on this came from the PS4 community."

If that´s the case (which isn´t), if crossplay becomes a thing someday, we´ll have nothing to thank the PS4 community for pushing gaming forward regarding this feature.

[harbie]

Sony doesn't speak for gamers, they are doing what's in the best interest of their pockets (as they should- we pay them to make good decisions for their sustainability & innovation, so we have better experiences). That does not mean Sony makes choices for the majority of gamers.

[Officialxandr]

I do and so do all my PS4 friends. Fanboyism is annoying and unnecessary. It's OKAY to want more from your favorite brand.

[Inzo]

They offer good quality exclusives what more do you want?

[StifflerK]

Hopefully this'll happen moreso in the future.
Forget the silly console war stuff, cross play is good as it boosts the number of players availble online per title, and allows friend with different platforms the ability to play together.

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

They love using inflammatory words haha. I don't think Sony customers care, I really don't. As far as I'm concerned anyone that didn't buy a PS4 - made the wrong choice. I don't want to mixed up with anyone that can't make solid purchases based on whats available on each console.

[gravedigger]

Surrendered!? Oh yes, Ben Kuchera is author

[sin7279]

Polygon gtfo!

[Platformgamer]

good job bullies and non-sony cancerous fanboys, you won.
you won the piece of shit award.
sony won the coward award.

[G3ng4r]

Pretty upset huh?

[Switch4One]

Wow. So eloquent.

[NotanotherReboot]

and what about the other 99.9 % who are Playstation gamers who want to play with friends on other platforms?

[G3ng4r]

Post about how it makes you feel, this is your platform.

[Snakefist30]

I don't wanna play with Friends.

[Kosic]

It's about time Sony got off their high horse. All these small choice Sony are doing, their doing them for their selves. Backwards compatibility under a high charge per month (ps now), locked cross play, there's a few others (can't remember right now).

But it's selfish business. As I now play single player and 3rd party releases. I may consider xbox next time. Seems more bang for my buck with cheaper games and BC.

[Dark_Knightmare2]

How are the games any cheaper on Xbox lol heck Sony has the way better sales and more frequently so what you said made no sense. If you play single player and third party releases let me give you some advice get a PS4 or switch because I have an Xbox and it’s def not good for single player and Sony gets exclusive content for most of the third parties if they don’t get them exclusive outright

[Kosic]

Bought an assassin's creed game for 97p off cd keys for the Xbox one in the past.

The lack of demands means lower prices.. it's common retail practice. Check over HotUKDeals and you'll see used Xbox one games are a lot less than PS4 games. Mainly by the boomerang rental vendor.

I don't play my consoles often and I rarely ever buy a new game day one. Unless it's an amazing game (octoparh traveler was my last day one buy).
So holding out buying bargain bucket prices I don't mind and the Xbox one games hit that price quicker than the PS4.
Seen assassins creed oirigns go for £12 Xbox one over a month ago on eBay (boomer rang rental as the seller).

Other things that Xbox seem to have and Sony 'dont need' EA access, game pass and the likes.

Come next gen, I'll see who has more to offer and not just get a PS4 because my friends have it (I don't really play online).

[Quatron]

Then fuck off you worthless retard. As if you even liked Sony to begin with. We never needed you. You could die the next day and we'll say "good riddance".

[Kosic]

Wow, what a pathetic reply. You get angry because I am considering to pick ups Microsoft console next gen because they offer more for the gamer?
Fuck me, you sound like a special kind of person.

Also for your info, I have a PS4 pro , a Nintendo Switch and a gaming PC.
So your comment is just beyond retarded.

[l33t_haxx0r]

Playstation fans did not want this so they did not win

[mark_parch]

you do realise that N4G doesn't account for the whole ps4 community right?

[Dark_Knightmare2]

You’re right good thing we had polls done by professional companies out in the real world and the results were heavily in favor of PlayStation fans not caring

[mark_parch]

@Dark_Knightmare2

polls done by professional companies lol.

It doesn't matter if 99% of playstation owners don't care, that still leaves nearly 1 million people who would like it and it makes no difference to you so why fight it? I have a playstation and I'm not bothered about crossplay but I still think it's a great move for the people that do want it and gaming in general. Why are most people on here so desperate to defend sony? Just admit there's nothing wrong with cross play and it's great that it's now available for the people that want it. Now it would be great if Microsoft made it truly free so people who play on xbox don't need to pay for xbox live

[NotanotherReboot]

The real Playstation fans like me did want it

[Nyxus]

You're not fooling anyone.

[Cohagen420]

Xbox and Bethesda are currently getting roasted for their bs, so I'm sure the ps fanboys are having a blast atm.

[Rimeskeem]

I never cared about this. I was fine playing with the ps community.

[Mr_Writer85]

Sony is playing the long game.

This is nothing but another plus to add to an already great system. They announce name changing by the end of the year, and full BC with PS4 on PS5 and this cross play news makes an already strong Sony look even stronger.

They listened to their fans, even when it owned the lions share of the market.

This isn't like MS who 180'ed on BC, cross play, and always online because they were being left behind. They did it because they know any good will see them lead again.

Imo Sony messed up much worse with the PS3 launch. Yet still clawed back the 360.

So they know if they please gamers they will buy their system.

Which they will want when the PS5 inevitably launches.

[Shikoku]

I dont see it as a plus. I just see it as a gimmick xbone pushed and they won. No gave a damn about this last gen but now for some reason its a big deal.

[Mr_Writer85]

Each generation brings a new thing, the PS2 era no one cared about online multiplayer.

Now its a stable in console gaming.

In a few generations cross play will be as normal as turning on a console.

[Shikoku]

Yeah no one cared about online...except thats why there are groups that have kept Ps2 FPS servers online for the last 20yrs. I hope it dies ita a gimmick just like the switch and previous nintendo consoles thats all this is Xbone and MS finding an angle.

[Mr_Writer85]

"except thats why there are groups that have kept Ps2 FPS"

Oh my apologies I didn't know that a small group of people playing an old console online meant that when it launched and was relevant that online gaming on console was a huge thing in that generation.

I mean looking back, look at all the online multiplayer games that sold millions.... Oh wait.

Or how about how many active users PS2 had.... Oh wait.

[Quatron]

Cause ONLY Sony is the problem with the whole industry. Miss me with your retarded logic, bitch.

[Mr_Writer85]

😂 😂 😂 Where did I say Sony were a problem?

Maybe learn to read and understand what you're reading before insulting people.

[kevinsheeks]

it's okay not to care but do you need to come to every other article about a subject you don't care about to say you don't care? or repeat "playstation fans didn't want this" as if you speak for all users . .

it's like me going to a parking lot everyday to stare at the same car and say "I don't care about this car" and when other people walk by the car I yell at them saying "NO ONE WANTS THIS CAR!!!!!"

stop it

[Valkron1]

Why try to make a positive a negative? Bad journalism?

[InKnight7s]

Surrender why every journalists ignoring that PS4 is the very first console with crossplay? FfXIV is the best MMO out there and the only console is PS4 to support it because MS refusing public servers and hard for Switch due to lack of proper internet base and lack of storage

[darx]

Sony fanboys are the douchiest!

[Ricegum]

Bit inappropriate. Silly comment.

[Artemidorus]

There is no negative view to have as a gamer when people come together, it means more players keeping something alive.

Any millennials who say different are deranged fanbois who are not thinking straight.

[ShadowWolf712]

Gee Ben.

It almost feels like you're actively trying to be hostile about this and make them regret it.

[Smokehouse]

You finally won Ben Kutchera! After years of endless whining and shaking your fists at the industry Sony finally released a crossplay beta because of YOU! Pat yourself on the back because you know what this means, your whining is just getting started.

[The_Sage]

I would have stuck to my guns. The vast majority of PlayStation owners didn't give a damn about crossplay.

[Sunny_D]

All I really want to know is who even plays Fortnite on this site?

[timotim]

Playstation fans won? If I'm not mistaken it was the majority of the PS fans on this site that said it didn't matter to them...how can you win something when you weren't even playing to begin with?

Who won was the developers and gamers as a whole. This was too big to ignore and too important to dismiss. Our voice as a collective is what won.

[CarlDechance]

Fortnite revenue won.

[timotim]

They are be apart of the developers I mentioned in my post right? This opens the gates for ALL devs and all gamers to be apart of the same community according to the ones making the game, not the platform holder who has nothing to do with the game. Thats a very good thing imo.

[CarlDechance]

It does not open any gate for anyone except Fortnite. At least not yet. Sony is conducting a beta of cross play for one game and one game only. Fortnite. Anything outside of that is just speculation.

[rainslacker]

I dunno how you can win without playing. But based on the premise of the article, Sony surrendered when they weren't even fighting.

In any case, I guess by the metrics of what is considered a win for consumers, or at least a benefit, I'd say that the gamers in general "won", because while this most directly seems to benefit the PS gamer, it actually benefits anyone who plays online....supposedly anyways as I know of no statistics which say if its a positive or negative either way.

The voice wasn't a major part of the consumer base though, and i still hold to my original thinking that came about two years ago, that this was something that wasn't going to happen overnight, and Sony could have been looking at it for months, or even since MS decided to make it a thing for their benefit.

Anyhow, the premise of this article is stupid anyhow. It assumes that Sony fought tooth and nail for the past couple years and then just suddenly since last month when they last said something about it, they gave up, and then just made it work with a complete set of compliance policies and implementation for cross buy/progression with a 3rd party company, because as we all know, business moves that fast.

Silly article, but hopefully now people just stop complaining about it, and move on to the point where it becomes disregarded as a major feature like it has for the 10 odd years prior to the rocket league dev deciding to say something about it.

@Carl

Fortnite is the beta to test the feature, and the policies surrounding it. Sony had amended their compliance policies to take the cross play and cross progression into account. Those policies are available to developers now, however, developers can't submit a game for complaince testing using the policies yet until its out of beta. But the groundwork is laid as of now.

The beta is to make sure that it works properly, and see if there is any need to refine, change, add, or remove any policy which doesn't work for whatever they feel is necessary to keep their network secure.

[NotanotherReboot]

Another victory over Sony!!

[Legatus]

But what about that nasty Spider-man "downgrade" which Rich "discovered" ? You were pretty vocal about that, but now I don't see you talking very much about that anymore, why is that ?

[NotanotherReboot]

This goes beyond that. This is consumer vs corporation and a great victory for the little guy

[Legatus]

"This goes beyond that."

No it doesn't, it's just another fanboy drivel, just like was that xbots Spider-man "downgrade" fiasco, as simple as that.

Oh and you mention "another" victory over Sony, what victories you achieved before ?

[NotanotherReboot]

They lowered the PS3 price because me and others chose to buy the 360 over their overpriced launch machine

[pyroxxx]

Don't think I won anything,..
I couldn't care less beforehand, certainly dont care about it now.

[NotanotherReboot]

Hopefully they go back to Killzone and Jak next

[sampsonon]

Microsoft won. now you don't have to buy a ps4 in order to play fortnite with your friends.
talking from a business decision of course.

Everything, investment in quality AAA games, and price point for the ps5 may get a hit if people don't need to buy the console to play with friends. don't believe me? read some of the comments from people that say they were going to buy a ps4 "thanks sony" now they don't need to.
A title like Spider-man, as well as it sold, only sold 3.3 million units out of an install base of more than 80 million which means most gamers are playing mp games, fortnite, with their friends. so how many ps4's were sold as a direct result of following friends purchases of a ps4? this we may never know, but i can tell you this, it's more than 3.3 million.

MS is golden now. Them and their fan base shamed sony into doing this because their install base is smaller, their exclusive lineup has been sparse, and almost all the press has been negative towards them.
Now, they've been given a life line until the companies they acquired come out with games, most likely for the next gen.

I am surprised people are so blinded buy this, not understanding how financially this could effect sony's bottom line, and when it does who do you think will pay for it? less money means less money for AAA games.

MS won, now gaming has turned into a service, which means micro transactions and always online.

congratulations!!!

[gigoran]

Fortnite is not the king of all games. I wish this trash of a game was never made

[RealOldGamer]

No, not surrender. It is a step in the right direction. Better late than never.

[TheDriz]

Technical limitations is all this has been

[Surt]

When the peasants win.

[GameGod26]

Didn’t care before and still don’t care now

[blacktiger]

This is only free to play, still other games like Minecraft can't join. Just posted twice, about this

[RabbitFly]

Minecraft is now owned by Microsoft.

The playstation version is not the same as the xbox version crossplay between them would probably be difficult

[xX1NORM1Xx]

Ill never understand why crossplay isn't desired by some people i get console vs pc thats a whole diffrent thing but xbox/ps4/switch is essentially the same thing if anything switch players should be the ones complaining because their hardware means lower resolution but no it seems everyone but playstation fanboys want the aability to play with others.

I dont get it playstation fanboys are always bring up 80million sales as the reason but surely another 60million from xbox and switch would be a good thing right? (despite sales having literally nothing to do with player base because not everyone that owns a console will play fortnite/rocket league/minecraft/etc)

Nevermind i just realised fanboys of any console probably won't have friends that own other consoles because they would have disowned them for betraying the mighty (insert plastic box manufacturer here)

[Silly gameAr]

So we went from hundreds of articles calling Sony such meany heads for not giving in to the media assault for crossplay, to lol sony surrendered and now were going to pretend all the bitching was for you PlayStation owners, even though you guys hardly cared. You should thank us!

This industry is so petty sometimes, it makes me sick.

[Soap_Z]

Polygon

No surprise

[Daishi]

Instead of responding to the dozens of posts saying the same thing I'll just put this out there. Now people who bought xboxs for the sole reason of playing a few games with friends can trade it for a PS4 and still play with them. In my opinion I want consoles to be more like PC, doesn't matter what brand as long as it can run the game. This oligarchy isnt good for gamers and doesn't end with a better experience. If fortnite was on a single console would it be the cultural phenomenon that it is? Would it receive updates as much as it does?

[Elda]

Still don't care about cross play or Fortnite. (continues to play Spiderman)

[harbie]

Still don't care about cross play on most games- too many exploits on PC- currencies, packet shapers, bots, etc. Could care less. If anything it's wasted dev time & causes more costs to my games & thus increases price or decreases quality.

[harbie]

What puzzels me is who actually plays fortnite lol the game is dog shit. I'll never understand the taste of gamers today.

[RabbitFly]

It has a massive cross appeal.

Battle royal games were already dominating on pc. Fortnite appeals to the Kids brought up on minecraft as well.

It the good old lowest common denominator.

[Cohagen420]

Casuals/ppl hopping on the popular bandwagon, not true gamers.

[harbie]

lol while PS gamers won? uh they have the majority by a long shot- they mean while all the other platorm gamers who may have wanted cross play won. Most PS4 gamers already won, cause almost every1 already has a PS4.

[LiamKreptic]

It’s a polygon article...shit sites produce shit articles

[Tross]

I'm sure the five people who actually cared about this will be really excited. For the rest of us...meh.

[Thundercat77]

"surrender" is when Microsoft decided to drop all their Xbox one features in order to SURVIVE because if not, their product was totally doomed.

On this case, is not a surrender because if Sony did not allow it, their domination of the market wouldn't have been affected.

[CyberRekkr]

Sony didn't surrender, They simply said yes let's give our fans what we tried to do back with the Ps3, But Microsoft said no! Sony made the decision based on what the fans wanted, not because Fortnite is so powerful they had no choice. At last I checked Sony is number 1 in the console market by far! Sony just gave us another great option for gaming. Thanks Sony You're the king of gaming!

[Gwiz]

Hmm,cross-play but not cross progression yet.According to Epic you can't link PSN and XBL.
Not that big of a deal " This is a very big deal." - Ben Kuchera " when two other very well known yet to be released games that have a Battle Royale.

[Gwiz]

lol those dislikes,I just checked on PC and it works flawlessly.

[playnice]

oh well might finally try this game ! :D (not a single friend on PSN :( )

[Saxism]

Isn’t Fortnite is on its way out? So why would this move matter anymore?

[neomahi]

PlayStation fans didn't win, we never wanted this. Why on earth would we want to play online with Xbots on Live? We don't even like people, we lock ourselves away and play single-player games, especially after hearing about those annoying eight year Olds, what makes you think we ever wanted to be a part of that community, we don't. Sony wilted like a flower, we thought we were behind a tough as nails company that had it figured out and wouldn't let Microsoft tell em what to do, guess what? They did.

[ChronoJoe]

I don't think Sony 'surrendered', I just think they weren't moving quickly on this. I genuinely believe they wanted to evaluate the scenario, see what was happening with cross play on XBOX/PC, etc.

I don't think Sony were ever saying no, forever, just that they wanted to carefully control their ecosystem, who plays on it, etc. I'm sure they made Epic jump through hoops to make this happen.

[EricHonolulu]

Ya, watch your wording, dum6@$$... SONY is more like ALLOWING cross play. This is Playstation's call. I could care less about Fortnite.

[sampsonon]

to all ps4 players, don't turn on the crossplay. this will be the end of sony the way we've come to love.

[PrinterMan]

Sensational journalist. /s

[RizBiz]

I'm a PlayStation fan and I don't want to play with XBL users. XBL is cancer.
That being said, Fortnite sucks so I won't have to play with them anyway. :)

[RRaam117]

Proud of you Sony, it'll pay off in the long run. You won this generation because you built good will with gamers in 2013 and you need to maintain that good will.

[krauley]

As far as i can tell, sony has just set up a beta to see how crossplay works on fortnite and only fortnite so how has sony given in to anything. They are just doing this for those that arent allowed or have access to the fortnite account features that they would have on the game if they played using theyre accounts on other hardware.

[Gaming_Guru]

And watch no one will use it after all the complaints, lol.

[HeroPsychoDreamer]

Why is it so important to gamers to be able to play against people on other platforms?