Rejoice Xbox fans! Fortnite cross-play now supports Microsoft’s Xbox One as well. The game will support “cross-play, cross-progression, and cross-purchase” across PC, iOS. Android support isn’t out yet but according to Epic Games, Android smartphones will be able to play with Xbox users soon.
Fortnite has taken the world by storm as soon as it has come out. The Battle Royale game gained so much popularity that Epic Games recently announced the mobile versions of this game. One can leave their progress where they left off on their PC and pick right where they left off on their phone. This feature was announced alongside the announcement of Fortnite coming to phones.
When cross-play was announced, it was announced for the Ps4, PC and mobile versions of the game. The Xbox One was surprisingly missing from this list. However, it was reported that Microsoft was working with Epic Games to bring Fortnite cross-play to the Xbox One and it seems their efforts did not go in vain. The cross-play feature’s support now extends to the Xbox One and players of PC, mobile and Xbox One will all be able to play with each other.
“Contrary to what may have been implied, Microsoft has long been a leading voice in supporting cross-platform play, connecting players across PC, mobile and all consoles,” reads a post on the Epic Games website. “We’ve been working together with them over the last several months to make this possible, and will bring this functionality to Fortnite players on Xbox right along with other platforms.”
“With each new platform we support and every update we ship, we strive to bring Fortnite to more people, and make it easier to play together with friends. And, as always, cross-play is opt in.”
Indeed, Microsoft has been a vocal supporter of cross-play ever since 2016. The company has offered rival company Sony to work together for cross-play before but Sony is not as open to the idea. Sony’s reluctance to enable cross-play between PlayStation and Xbox can be seen in this scenario as well. Fortnite has cross-play enabled for Ps4, PC and mobile as well. So, Ps4 and Xbox users can play the game with their friends on PC and mobile but not with each other. The perfect cross-play world is so close, yet so far.
According to Phil Spencer, the lead at Xbox, he wants people to be able to play with each other from anywhere. This is the entire rationale behind Xbox’s “Play Anywhere”, that you should be able to play any game you like from whichever console/machine you’re comfortable with your friends without having to stay limited to a particular device where most of your friends play.
Cross-play between Ps4 and Xbox One is certainly possible. There’s no hardware limitation, it all depends on whether the two parties are willing to work together. This was further proven when two people from the different consoles were able to connect with each other in an online match “accidentally” over the weekend. The Fortnite developers may have accidentally enabled cross-play between both consoles which enabled some players to briefly play with each other. However, it was later classified as an “error” and has since been “corrected”.
What does Fortnite cross-play mean for Xbox?
Now that the service is finally available, this means that PUBG has some serious competition. Alongside Fortnite, PUBG is perhaps the most popular battle-royale type game. Many people refer to Fortnite as the “free PUBG”. The game is currently an Xbox and PC exclusive and dominates the scene at Xbox.
However, with Fortnite now having cross-play enabled, many people might prefer Fortnite over PUBG. If Fortnite keeps bringing frequent updates to keep the game fresh alongside game-changing announcements like cross-play, it’s easy to see Fortnite overtaking PUBG in the future.