Why Fortnite battles between Switch and PS4 players ain't happening

Nintendo Switch players can get Fortnite right now, but they won't be able to play the game with friends on the PS4.

Nintendo announced at E3 2018 on Tuesday that Fortnite is immediately available for its portable console. The game became available almost as soon as the announcement was over, opening the free-to-play game to all via the Nintendo eShop. (You can watch the full Nintendo E3 event here.)

Many people hoped the Switch announcement would reveal that Sony had finally lifted its barriers to cross-console play, but it was not to be the case. In fact, if you have a Fortnite account on PS4 and try to login on Switch, you'll be met with an error, as prominent gaming critic Greg Miller tweeted:

.@PlayStation, fix this.

Not allowing me to sign-in to Fortnite Switch with my Epic account because it's linked to PS4 is tone deaf and points more to fear than market dominance.

It does the opposite of what you want -- it makes me think about moving to Xbox for Fortnite. pic.twitter.com/D9xqv9aWdF

— Greg Miller (@GameOverGreggy) June 12, 2018

The same is true if you try to use a Switch-created account on PS4. When asked for comment, Sony released the following statement:

"We're always open to hearing what the PlayStation community is interested in to enhance their gaming experience. Fortnite is already a huge hit with PS4 fans, offering a true free-to-play experience so gamers can jump in and play online.  With 79 million PS4s sold around the world and more than 80 million monthly active users on PlayStation Network, we've built a huge community of gamers who can play together on Fortnite and all online titles. We also offer Fortnite cross-play support with PC, Mac, iOS, and Android devices, expanding the opportunity for Fortnite fans on PS4 to play with even more gamers on other platforms."

For now, the Fortnite cross-platform breakdown looks like this:

• PlayStation 4: PC, Mac, iOS
  
• Xbox One: PC, Mac, iOS and Nintendo Switch
  

Fortnite is this year's biggest game phenomenon, becoming not only a huge revenue driver for Epic Games, but the biggest console free-to-play game of all time. And that was before it hit the Nintendo Switch. An Android version of Fortnite is in the works, but isn't expected to launch until later this summer.

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