[developer12]

I think its insane how many comments are trying to deflect from the issue. Sony can and should allow users to bring their accounts and purchases with them to and from their platform.

> It's against Sony's policy to be able to pay for things to be used outside their ecosystem...mostly because that opens up a whole can of legal worms. I can purchase skins on PC and use them on PS4. So that blows up the legal argument.

This feels like a weird distortion because its gaming related. For example Apple allows their users to bring kindle books purchased outside their platform even though they didn't get a 30% cut of sales. We would be roasting Apple right now if they were locking it down like Sony is.

[mentat]

Apple did want to block books purchased outside their platform. Kindle for iOS still doesn't support purchasing because of this.

https://www.computerworld.com/article/2509396/mobile-apps/am...

https://www.theverge.com/2013/7/30/4572170/amazon-finds-clev...

http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/24/technology/gadgets/kindle-ap...

[dogma1138]

This isn’t the same thing exactly.

You can buy items in the game on the PC play it on multiple platforms but as soon as you log into the game on a PS4 the account will be locked to that system as far as consoles go.

There is no warnning, there is no way to reverse this and they essentially lock you out out of your own account.

Apple wanted a cut that Amazon didn’t want to give but they didn’t not block you from using the Kindle app on an iPhone nor did they locked out the books from being accessible on other platforms once you’ve opened them on your phone.

Not even Apple is that stupid.

Also even if Apple did block books purchased outside of their platform that would still would not be comparable as they did not forcibly locked you out of content you’ve already owned on all other platforms.

I would be Ok if Sony and Epic made a deal that items purchased from the PSN store would be unavailable else where but locking your account because you logged in even once and didn’t play the game or even bought an item is just bullshit.

I should add to this that this isn’t even only Fortnite as this is on the Epic account level so if you played previous Epic games on your PS4 your account is locked out by default.

A friend of mine had his Fortnite account locked out because they played the Paragon beta on their PS4 like 2 years ago. They don’t even own a PS4 anymore and never played Fortnite on it.

[madrox]

> For example Apple allows their users to bring kindle books purchased outside their platform even though they didn't get a 30% cut of sales

They also don't allow you to purchase books within their ecosystem. On PC, you're using Epic's payment platform. Same way you can pay for your kindle books on the web in Amazon's ecosystem and then read them on an iPad.

My point is that weird technical and legal hurdles, when followed lazily, can lead to anti-consumer practices. I don't think it's deflecting from the issue to discuss the underlying technical and legal constraints. It's Hacker News. If you want to rage against Sony for not allowing cross-play go to Polygon.

[developer12]

> On PC, you're using Epic's payment platform.

I don't see how this is different from Xbox/iOS/PC/Switch all sharing digital purchases. Sony is the only platform that has "legal hurdles" preventing this?

> My point is that weird technical and legal hurdles

I don't think their are any technical challenges unless you insist digital licenses must be sandboxed. Epic has accidentally removed the technical blocks previously.

> It's Hacker News. If you want to rage against Sony for not allowing cross-play go to Polygon.

I'm sorry if it feels like I'm raging but I strongly believe users need to fight for fair digital licensing. Sandboxing purchases feels like a fine technical workaround but I'd prefer platform owners change policy to match users expectations.

[TAForObvReasons]

> Sony is the only platform that has "legal hurdles" preventing this?

Not all companies "move fast and break things" in legal matters. We don't know the full circumstances, but Sony may have evaluated the landscape and decided the liabilities weren't worth the potential profits, while Nintendo and Microsoft looked at the landscape and decided that the profits exceeded the liabilities in this case.

It's for the same reason that you find Wells Fargo or Facebook committing transgressions that other banks or social media sites may avoid.

[izacus]

> If you want to rage against Sony for not allowing cross-play go to Polygon.

While you might not agree with the other poster, this REALLY isn't the way civil people debate. Don't do this.

[dwaite]

> > For example Apple allows their users to bring kindle books purchased outside their platform even though they didn't get a 30% cut of sales > They also don't allow you to purchase books within their ecosystem.

Apple will absolutely let you purchase ebooks within their ecosystem. But if you are selling other people's books, that 30% is likely your entire margin.

Ironically, you can buy real books too, without giving apple a cut (except their portion for the CC tx fees from the bank for Apple Pay)