Why 'Fortnite' Gamers on Xbox Can't Join Their Friends on PlayStation
On a Thursday in September, Epic Games Inc. had accidentally allowed players of the popular combat game, "Fortnite" to play together on competing consoles. This allowed players of the game who used a Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox to play alongside Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 4. Epic Games discovered the error and immediately turned off the "cross-play". In order for "Fortnite" to be playable across the two systems, both Sony and Microsoft would need to allow it, but Sony has been reluctant to do so.
Although prohibiting cross-play can be advantageous for the console maker because it allows shoppers to be more inclined in choosing a system that their friends own, it can also be a disadvantage by limiting the potential to expand their audiences. Allowing players to play Fortnite on multiple consoles would allow the players to be able to play with their friends, despite the type of console they own. Players would be less likely to play another game if they are able to play the same games that their friends are playing. In addition, consoles that allow for crossplay for multiple devices would gain more buyers, due to the convenience of being able to play on any device. Although this would mainly be more profitable for the gaming company, consoles will also benefit from it as it would increase their market for potential customers.
Written by Priscilla Phuong
This is reminiscent to the segmentation between Android and Apple users, who are always feuding with each other that one is superior to the other. The important difference here is that allowing Apple users to only communicate with Apple users or Android to Andriod only communications would never happen. Neither Sony or Microsoft want to give up their part of the market by allowing cross play between the two consoles.
ReplyDeleteUser preference for a specific brand will always exist and in the future, hopefully these game companies will allow cross play because whether you choose XBox over PS4 should be a matter of the quality of the product not a barrier to playing with other users.