Sony has relented to consumer and industry pressure to open up the PlayStation 4 to cross-play gaming with rival platforms.

After rivals such as Microsoft enabled cross-play features, Sony had faced calls to do the same for titles on its platform. Those calls were most fierce for Epic’s battle royale hit Fortnite.

Having initially resisted opening up the platform, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO John Kodera today released a statement and said the company would now begin “supporting cross-platform features for select third-party content”.

Fortnite beta

An open beta has begun for Fortnite, enabling players to battle their Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, iOS and Android counterparts. Previously it had blocked cross-play for Xbox One and Switch players.

As well as being able to play against users on other systems, players will also get to keep their in-game progression and purchased items across platforms.

It’s not yet clear how expansive this policy will be and if or when Sony will let all developers enable cross-play in future.

“This represents a major policy change for SIE and we are now in the planning process across the organisation to support this change,” said Kodera.

“We will update the community once we have more details to share, including more specifics regarding the beta timeframe, and what this means for other titles going forward.”