Sony turned on cross play as an opt-in beta for Fortnite on the Playstation last fall, but the newest v8.10 patch for the popular battle royale game is making it default. Now, each player of Xbox One and PlayStation will be grouped into the same pool for matchmaking in the battle royale mode of Fortnite.
Basically, each player will still technically have to opt to agree to play against players on the opposite console. However, Epic Games is not really leaving players much of a choice, the ones who do not opt will be limited to just Creative Mode and Playgrounds.
Along with the teaming up of Xbox One and PlayStation 4 players in the same matchmaking pool, the Nintendo Switch, which had previously been placed in the same group as the other consoles, is getting bumped down to the mobile pool. The sentence means the players of Nintendo Switch will be placed in the games against iOS and Android users by default now. The developer says it combined those player groups in order to provide an on average better per game experience for both Mobile and Nintendo Switch players. On the broader level, they say that the newly merged Xbox One/PlayStation 4 and mobile/Nintendo Switch pools are for optimizing purposes, which will allow it to run more playlists during more hours of the day while supporting data center locations.
If you want to make the Xbox and PS4 players play Fortnite together, the players need a free Epic Games account. You are able to do it inside the game itself or through the official website of Epic Games. to play online with other cross different Fortnite platforms, you will have to link your platform to your Epic Games account.
On consoles, you are able to add any friends with an Epic Games account directly through the game, via the main menu. Aside from that, there is also the option of using the Party Finder feature of the game to look for any of your Epic Games account friends across platforms if they have to be online. In addition, the game also has a Squad Fill feature that allows you to auto-fill a party with random users not on your friends list. However, you need to be in a cross-platform party if you want to play against players on the other platforms.
Here are the steps how the Xbox and PS4 players can play together on Fortnite. After creating the Epic Games account, you need to be friends with anyone you want to play cross platform Fortnite with via your Epic account. Then, download the Epic Launcher, open it and log into your account. The next thing is to click the silhouette located in the top right and enter the Epic email address of the username of your friend and hit OK. Please repeat this process until you have invited all your friends. Once they accept your friend request, you are able to return to your system of choice. When you click the silhouette, you will be able to see all of your friends, highlight the name and choose “join party” to enter their lobby.
