'Fortnite' Switch Crossplay: Why Can't PlayStation 4 Players Login?

Tons of Fortnite: Battle Royale fans were elated when Nintendo confirmed during the company’s E3 presentation that the game was coming to Nintendo Switch that very day, but a huge portion of them totally lost it when they realized they couldn’t link their accounts on the new platform.

Fortnite: Battle Royale hit the Nintendo Switch as of 1 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, but almost immediately some players began getting error messages when they tried logging in. Anyone can download Fortnite in the Nintendo Switch eShop for free and link their account, but if your Epic Games account was originally created via the PlayStation 4, you’ll find it impossible to login.

That means that anyone who’s invested dozens (or hundreds) of hours playing on the PlayStation 4 and potentially spent money on a Premium Battle Pass and/or special cosmetic items won’t have access to them on the Switch. They’ll have to make an entirely new account and start from scratch.

Normally, once you have an account with Epic Games to play Fortnite, you can log in to almost any other platform to play. I myself started on PlayStation 4 but occasionally play on my iPhone or iPad, where I can access the same account and progress.

But here’s the message I received when I tried to log on via the Nintendo Switch:

So why does this happen?

The specific language makes it seem like Sony “does not allow [Fortnite] to operate on Switch” without actually calling Sony out. Just seeing this message, you might assume this happens to players from Xbox One too, but supposedly, this error only happens to PlayStation 4 users.

Just because Epic Games couldn’t call out Sony in this message, that didn’t stop tons of fans on Reddit and Twitter from doing just that with the hashtag #BlameSony.

As a PSA, some players thought that unlinking your account from Sony’s PlayStation Network might allow it to work, but that is not the case:

Considering how devoted the Fortnite player base is, it’s highly unlikely that many of them would be willing to abandon their progress just because the Switch offers a more flexible and potentially mobile gaming experience. It’s also doubtful that anybody will buy a Premium Battle Pass on more than one account just so they can play on both PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. So for many players, the Switch will probably become a glorified alternative to the iOS version.

It’ll be perfect in a pinch when you want to get your Fortnite fix, but the Nintendo Switch version of Fortnite will never be the main platform through which they play the game.

Inverse reached out to Sony for a comment on this story and we will update if we receive a response.