Former head of Sony Online Entertainment, John Smedley, has suggested a reason for the Fortnite



btw when I was at Sony, the stated reason internally for this was money. They didn't like someone buying something on an Xbox and it being used on a Playstation. simple as that. dumb reason, but there it is. — John Smedley (@j_smedley) June 18, 2018

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In response to a video on the cross-play block by Kinda Funny's Greg Miller, Smedley tweeted, "If we keep up the pressure, the problem goes away." Smedley then went on to claim that, while he was at Sony, the historical reason for denying cross-play was stated as being financial.The cross-play block imposed by Sony has been brought to light again recently due to Fortnite launching on the Nintendo Switch. Players who have previously linked their Epic Games account with the PlayStation 4 version have found they are unable to log in with the same account on the Switch. This means that players are unable to carry over Fortnite purchases made on the PlayStation 4 over to Switch, so you essentially have to start all over again. However, accounts created on all other platforms, such as Xbox One and PC, can be carried over to Switch along with all of your purchases.Despite Xbox's Phil Spencer saying he would like cross-play between Xbox and PlayStation consoles, Sony seems less keen. Last year, PlayStation global sales and marketing head Jim Ryan told Eurogamer the decision to block cross-play was due to Sony wanting to protect its players from "external influences."

Editor's note: this post was edited for clarity.Vic is a freelance news writer for IGN. Often found force-feeding people The Sims or gifting PlayerUnknown potato bread. You can follow her on Twitter @hood_vic.