In response to Fortnite accounts locked out of Switch, Sony says it's "always open to hearing" feedback

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Sony's official response to the Fortnite cross-platform account lockout issue is disheartening

Fortnite's Ramirez has a crick in her neck.

You still can't play Fortnite on Switch with your main Epic account if it's ever been associated with PS4, and Sony has finally issued a statement responding to player concerns. If you were hoping for a quick change in policy on Sony's end, or at least an apology for the inconvenience, the message given to the BBC by a Sony spokesperson unfortunately did not deliver in either regard. It did… um, boast about how many people use PlayStation Network, though?

"We're always open to hearing what the PlayStation community is interested in to enhance their gaming experience," Sony's statement said. "With... 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."

Tone-deaf as bragging about PSN users may sound in this scenario, the worst part is how the statement misses the main problem people are complaining about: the fact that if you've ever linked your Epic Account to a PSN account, it's locked out from Switch (and Xbox One) forever, even if you later unlink it from PSN. If Sony doesn't want to allow cross-console multiplayer on PS4 that's its own choice to make, bummer it may be. But putting permanent limits on a third-party account for a wildly popular multiplatform game is egregious.

Some of the blame for those permanent limits may fall on Epic as well. Though the error message you receive when you try to log into Fortnite on Switch with a PS4-associated Epic account squarely puts the blame on the platform itself (in other words, Sony), it's strange that unlinking your PSN account doesn't even fix it. Then again, if it was simply a matter of tweaking some back-end stuff, you'd think the typically quite responsive Fortnite team would've either resolved the issue or at least explained it by now. 

In any case, whoever can fix this problem hopefully will very soon, because many, many players are going to remain disappointed and bitter until then.

Feeling a bit toxed out on Fortnite now? Take a look into the future with our list of the coolest E3 2018 games. 

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar.