PlayStation Plus Members Can Grab Free Fortnite Gear

When it comes to home consoles, the platform holders try hard to get gamers to buy into the platform services rather than just owning the hardware. Microsoft kicked things off back during the sixth gen with the start of Xbox Live, and Sony quickly followed behind with the PlayStation Network. Since then both companies have been trying to one-up each other with what the online services offer, including trying to lure gamers in with specialty items for those who subscribe to the premium version of the online service. Sony has decided to tempt gamers to pay for the PlayStation Plus membership by giving them some free incentives. Those incentives come in the form of some free gear in Epic Games' highly popular Battle Royale game, Fortnite.

Over on the PlayStation Store there's a brand new PlayStation Plus Celebration Pack for the Fortnite Battle Royale mode. The add-on went live on September 11th exclusively for PlayStation Plus subscribers.

The Celebration Pack includes three cosmetic items that the store page notes will not affect the gameplay.

The pack comes with a Flappy Glider, which is a blue and white glider pack that you drop down into the map with. The Flappy Glider has a silly face on the top of it with two googly eyes and a small smile. This will replace your starting glider, if you choose to use it.

The second item on the list is a Controller Pickaxe, which is classified as an "epic" classed pickaxe. It's still themed with a similar motif as the Flappy Glider. You see that it has a black paint job with a blue lightning spray on the top of the axe head.

The third item in the exclusive PlayStation Plus pack for Fortnite is a Skydiving Trail, which gives you a special falling trail when you dive into the map. The falling trail features four different colors for your character as they fall, including a purple trail on the left leg, a blue trail on the right leg, an orange trail on the right hand and a green trail on the left hand.

All three items will ensure that people know you have acquired the PlayStation Plus Celebration Pack. However, anyone who plays Fortnite on the Nintendo Switch or Xbox One won't be able to see it anyway because Sony has blocked cross-play compatibility with the other consoles.

Nintendo hasn't been very vociferous about cross-play and has silently accepted whatever cross-compatibility options that developers have put forward, but Microsoft has been making digs at Sony for denying gamers the ability to play with other console players. Nintendo fans have also been quite outspoken even though Nintendo has tried maintaining some element of diplomatic coyness. The reason for the outspokenness from Nintendo Switch owners is that if you attempt to use your PlayStation account to log into the Nintendo Switch version of Fortnite it will lock your account out of accessing the game on the Switch.

For those of you who don't mind the whole lack of cross-play and are enjoying Epic Games' Battle Royale game on the PS4, you can get your hands on the three free cosmetic items right now if you have a PlayStation Plus subscription.