"If they were truly about being pro-consumer, all of this pushback would now be turned towards MS for having a paywall for a F2P game."

>Sony's locking out Epic accounts was anti-consumer on a higher level. It transcended platforms.

XBox's F2P policy has no effect on PS4 or Switch.

It does though. The reason it crossed over was because Fortnite was designed in a way that cross play/accounts was expected by Epic for the game to function as designed. PS locking accounts made that impossible because you couldn't continue your progress if you owned multiple platforms.

Now that cross play exists between all 3 platforms, if someone has a PS4, and a friend has an XB1 but doesn't have Live for whatever reason, you can't play Fortnite with them because XB is locking Fortnite behind a paywall. Fortnite was designed as an F2P game, and MS isn't honoring that, just like how PS wasn't before.

Just like how it was the choice of PS to do what they wanted with cross play, it's also the choice of XB what they want to do with paywalls. The point is if people are logically going to be outraged over PS locking accounts which hinders cross access to Fortnite, then they also need to be outraged that XB is locking access entirely for some to Fortnite.

If you were willing to spend time bashing PS for their anti consumer behavior, then you should be doing the same for MS now. If you aren't, then you will understand why many people weren't taking you seriously before, and most certainly won't in the future. (I mean 'you' in general btw, not you specifically)

I'm not convinced. PS was effectively hijacking accounts merely by the act of associating the account with PS thereby locking it away from use on a Switch. Meanwhile, on XB1, the association can take place without fear of having the account locked away from the Switch. I completely agree it's shameful for XBox to lock f2p behind their paywall but at least people didn't have to fear XBox would render a Fortnite account unusable on a Switch.

That would be nice, but I fail to see why a free game should have access to online free.

If anything, paid games should have free online.

Crossplay is different, it simply doesent isloate platforms. You cant buy your way around that.

At this point Xbox is the only platform that requires a subscription to play Fortnite.  You don't need PS Plus, you don't need Nintendo Online, but you do need Xbox Live.  Odd man out on it atm.

It does though. The reason it crossed over was because Fortnite was designed in a way that cross play/accounts was expected by Epic for the game to function as designed. PS locking accounts made that impossible because you couldn't continue your progress if you owned multiple platforms.

Now that cross play exists between all 3 platforms, if someone has a PS4, and a friend has an XB1 but doesn't have Live for whatever reason, you can't play Fortnite with them because XB is locking Fortnite behind a paywall. Fortnite was designed as an F2P game, and MS isn't honoring that, just like how PS wasn't before.

Just like how it was the choice of PS to do what they wanted with cross play, it's also the choice of XB what they want to do with paywalls. The point is if people are logically going to be outraged over PS locking accounts which hinders cross access to Fortnite, then they also need to be outraged that XB is locking access entirely for some to Fortnite.

If you were willing to spend time bashing PS for their anti consumer behavior, then you should be doing the same for MS now. If you aren't, then you will understand why many people weren't taking you seriously before, and most certainly won't in the future. (I mean 'you' in general btw, not you specifically)

I’m curious if the discussion now will move on to MS, who hide Fortnite and other ftp games behind their Gold paywall.

At this point Xbox is the only platform that requires a subscription to play Fortnite.  You don't need PS Plus, you don't need Nintendo Online, but you do need Xbox Live.  Odd man out on it atm.