In recent months, Microsoft has been open about its willingness to unite the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. Doing so would be a seismic shift from the traditional approach to console networks, where players can only play with others on the system they’re using. Thus far, Sony has refused to play ball, but it appears that a bug in Epic Games’ Fortnite had jumped the gun and allowed users to play together across consoles.
Over the weekend, a PlayStation 4 Fortnite player spotted a user in their game who had a space in his name rather than an underscore — this is impossible to do on the console, and when the PlayStation 4 user searched the name on his Xbox, he spotted the player in question. They also confirmed that the player owned the game on Xbox One and not on PC, as some had questioned in the thread.
Eurogamer also spotted a more definitive example of a father and son playing on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in the same room as each other. With the game so heavily focused on multiplayer — and with the recently announced “Battle Royale” mode, this could be a way for the game to keep its player count up when other AAA games begin to release this fall.
According to Fortnite developer Epic Games, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players were indeed able to play together in the game, but this was a mistake. “We had a configuration issue and it has now been corrected,” a spokesperson told Engadget. The walls are up again to separate the two ecosystems.
Microsoft has already managed to work out a deal with Nintendo for crossplay support in the Switch version of Minecraft. After signing into a Microsoft account through the game, you’re free to explore and build structures with players on nearly every system. Nintendo Switch and PlayStation players are still unable to play the game together, however, with Sony questioning whether it would be able to keep its younger users safe. This is something head of Xbox Phil Spencer strongly refuted, telling Giant Bomb during E3 that he didn’t think that conversation was “healthy for anyone.”
We can only hope that Microsoft and Sony will be able to work out their differences and allow multiplayer communities to merge in the future. Especially with games like Destiny 2, being able to play with all of your friends would be a major selling point.
Fortnite is available in “paid early access” for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Mac.
Update: Adjusted the content to reflect Epic Games’ confirmation of a “configuration issue.”
