Sony has been in the hot seat ever since they stated back in August that they wouldn’t allow cross-play on the popular Battle Royale game, Fornite. Even worse, the reason they gave was that “The PlayStation 4 was the best experience for users.” Not exactly the best way to handle a rabid fanbase. After facing what appeared to be an insurmountable amount of backlash, Sony has relented and are about to give the fans what they have been asking for. In a blog post on blog.us.playstation.com, written no less by the President and Global CEO John Kodera, the company has announced that it will enable cross-play for players, beginning with an open beta on Fortnite itself on the PlayStation 4 which begins today.

Fortnite cross-platform play starts today in open beta. Full details: https://t.co/fyPmx4iB4O pic.twitter.com/wdY3GnT4u1

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) September 26, 2018

Kodera states in the blog post:

The first step will be an open beta beginning today for Fortnite that will allow for cross platform gameplay, progression and commerce across PlayStation 4, Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, and Mac operating systems. We see the beta as an opportunity to conduct thorough testing that ensures cross-platform play is best on PlayStation, while being mindful about the user experience from both a technical and social perspective.

Kodera also goes onto state that this a “major policy change” which means that the company will be committed to fully supporting cross-play with Fortnite. There was no timeframe given for the cross-play beta, but will commence today at some point. Whether this is considered a victory for the people who were pushing for it, or it’s looked at as the company bending to the wishes of everyone who gave them grief, Sony has at long last given way to something that was long considered impossible for so many years.

Microsoft and Nintendo ignited the spark that started all of this back in June, adding games such as Minceraft and Rocket League to their cross-play list, while Sony continued to deny their players this very feature. It only made sense for the company to step back from their hard line position, and now we could potentially see more games from their library go this way if the open beta is deemed a success. Now we are facing a future where players could play with PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, and PC users all at once. The gaming community is about to come together in a huge way, so don’t be surprised if you start hearing about other games going the way of cross-play sooner than later.