PlayStation has joined Fortnite's shared wallet system, letting you access and spend the V-Bucks you’ve purchased on Sony's consoles through other platforms.
Announced by Fortnite developer Epic Games, the battle royale’s shared wallet feature hit PlayStation consoles as part of its 20.40 update. Previously, any funds that were purchased on Fortnite through a PS5 or PS4 were only available to spend on Sony’s systems. But now, they’ll now be available to spend on the Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Android devices, and the PC version of the game.
As a result, the Nintendo Switch is left as the only console that can run Fortnite but doesn’t support the shared wallet feature. While V-Bucks earned through the game’s battle pass will automatically transfer between all platforms, those that are purchased in Fortnite’s in-game store can only be shared to consoles that use the shared wallet.
Using the feature is easy. Just link your PlayStation account with your Epic login, and you’ll be able to transfer funds to any other platform that’s also been tied to your Epic account.
It's pretty handy, too. It saves you from having to rely on a single platform to manage your in-game funds and prevents the unfortunate situation in which tiny amounts of V-Bucks end up spread across several systems. Given the popularity of the feature, we wouldn’t be surprised if other multi-platform live-service titles started rolling out a similar feature down the line.
A sign of the times
Sony’s decision to roll out Fortnite’s shared wallet system for PlayStation consoles is telling. The tech giant has been slow to adopt inter-platform features in the past, even going so far as to block crossplay for Fortnite when it was first introduced on Xbox and Nintendo platforms.
That Sony is now opening its crossplay doors even further signals a change of heart for the tech giant. It’s been less protective of the PlayStation ecosystem in recent years, following in Microsoft’s footsteps to port several of its major first-party titles to PC, including 2018’s God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Death Stranding. This shared wallet update is the latest instance of Sony embracing content and monetization models that move past traditional console-focused thinking.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney echoed a similar sentiment on Twitter: “Another great move by Sony, opening up support for cross-platform currency in Fortnite.
“PlayStation has played a huge role in the social gaming revolution that’s nurturing the growth of the metaverse as a new entertainment medium.”
