Epic Games working on unlinking Fortnite accounts from consoles, merge purchases
This year at E3 2018 it was announced that Fortnite is now on the Nintendo Switch. Now you can cross-play with Fortnite on your PC, Switch, Mac, iOS, Xbox, and soon on the PlayStation 4.
Update September 26, 2018
Sony finally caved and said there will soon be a Beta program for PlayStation users to be able to use cross-play abilities across all of the consoles. Users are excited to soon get the chance to play with their friends who own different consoles. But, what does that mean for all your purchases and all the problems with linking your Fornite accounts (like what we've noted below)?
Well, Epic Games gave us a heads up today on Twitter saying they are working on two different things. "1) An account-merging feature to combine Battle Royale purchases, coming in November. 2) Enabling unlinking a console from one Fortnite account, and relinking to another Fortnite account. Coming in a few days." They have since deleted the Tweet, but we caught it for you.
The current system already allows you to unlink and re-link your account. But, when you do, you lose everything. It's nice to know that Epic Games will be fixing the issues on their end just like Sony is on theirs!
If you want to use cross-play, don't link your account to PlayStation 4
If you create a Fortnite account and link it to your PS4, it will not allow you to log in on any other platform besides PC. This means you'll be required to make a separate account to use on another platform. If you are a new player looking to get into Fortnite who intends on using the crossplay options make sure you link your account to anything but your PlayStation.
.@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.@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, 2018June 12, 2018
Basically, what I'm saying is, if you want to use the cross-play options then don't link your Epic account to your PlayStation 4. You don't want your account locked to a PC and PlayStation when you have so much more abilities to play with a lot more people by keeping it connected to literally any of your other platforms. On top of this, your PlayStation 4 account purchases don't transfer to your Xbox, Switch or PC accounts. But, if all your friends are playing on PlayStation 4, and you have no intention of linking it to another account, then you have nothing to worry about.
Unlinking your Fortnite account from PlayStation
There are a few warnings we want you to know before you do this. You will lose just about everything connected to your account as you can not carry it from one console to another. These warnings and instructions will work for PSN ID, Nintendo account, Xbox gamertag, or another external account.
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- All of your saved data lives on your Epic account, not your connected account.
- If you disconnect your PSN ID from the Epic account that is currently connected to, any purchases, stats, and saved data will be lost.
- Platform Locks on Fortnite cannot be circumvented, even by replacing one connected account with another.
If you've read the warnings and still want to disconnect your PS4 account so that you can connect it to another platform:
- Go to your Connected Accounts page.
- Click the DISCONNECT button below the external account in question.
Now your account is free to connect to any console you so wish to connect it to.
Update September 2018: Sony will soon allow cross-play, and Epic Games is going to merge account purchases!
Essa Kidwell is an expert in all things VR and mobile devices who can always be found with an Oculus Go, a Pixel 2, and an iPhone 7+. They've been taking things apart just to put them back together for quite some time. If you've got a troubleshooting issue with any of your tech, they're the one you want to go to! Find them on Twitter @OriginalSluggo or Instagram @CosmeticChronus.