Earlier this week, Sony announced the official news that crossplay is happening and unsurprisingly, it begins with the absurdly popular title by Epic Games, Fortnite. It seems if they’re going to make a business decision that changes their flip-flipping approach to the entire idea, why not go big with the biggest game on the market? The elusive question is – why did it take Sony so long to get on board with PlayStation crossplay?

It’s no secret that Sony has struggled with the idea of crossplay entirely. One moment interest is claimed on making it happen, but there will be a double-back with vague statements such as “PlayStation is the best place to play.” Officially, however, crossplay is happening for the Sony home console beginning with the sixth season of Fortnite. According to PlayStation Worldwide Studios executive, Shawn Layden, this next step wasn’t as easy as “flipping a switch.” According to the latest PlayStation Blogcast, Layden revealed:

We know this is a want, this is a desire, and we want to be able to deliver that in the best way possible. Now, enabling cross-play isn’t just about flipping a switch and ‘there you go’. It’s a very multi-dimensional kind of attribute or feature.

So we had to look at it from a technical point of view, we have to work with our partners from a business point of view, we have to make sure that if we enable this, do we have the right customer service support, do we have the right messaging out there, do we have all these different things that you have to get in line. It’s rather ordinal – they have to go in a certain order to get them all set up.”

The process was delayed much longer than PlayStation “would have wanted,” but it was going to happen either way. “That’s why, though it’s taken us longer certainly than even I would have wanted, but it took as long as it was going to take to get it ready and get it done,” said Layden. “Which is why we’re able to not only to announce it on this past Tuesday, but also enable it at the same time.”

Thankfully, plans are going smoothly with the Fortnite beta. And so far, this next step for PlayStation has been widely received. If all continues to go well, there may be other games coming to crossplay in the near future.

Right now we’re in a beta test program. I think that certainly once we can prove that this is all holding together, sturdy, and well, I would anticipate seeing other games in the [cross-play] service over time.”

Passing on a question to you, what do you think about PlayStation finally joining the cause with Nintendo and Xbox? Do you think they finally gave into peer pressure or was this just delayed fate? Let us know what you think in the comments section below or start a conversation on DFTG Facebook page. To stay up to date on gaming news as it happens, follow us on Twitter! In other pocket monster news, here’s some of our latest:

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The Fortnite beta for PlayStation 4 is available now.