PUBG cross-play is finally live for PS4 and Xbox One players. (No cross-play for you, keyboard-and-mouse warriors!)
Update: October 1, 2019
Six weeks after PUBG Corp. promised that PUBG cross-play would be coming, it’s finally here. Now players on console can play with – or more likely, against – one another on PS4 and Xbox One.
As part of the console update 4.3, that was pushed to clients today, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players will now be in the same matchmaking pool for the first time. That’s not all, though. Console update 4.3 also includes a bunch of updates, including the survival mastery system and a new weapon, the DBS. There are also, as ever, a long list of tweaks, updates, and general fixes.
We’re not sure if the blue and green outfits (are those Xbox players wearing swimming shorts?) are included as part of the PUBG cross-play update. We hope not.
Original story: August 19, 2019
When cross-play was added to Fortnite Battle Royale, it didn’t signal the end of the walled garden ecosystem. But it did represent a start. A couple of bricks off the top of the wall.
It works well, but there are some compromises, of course. Matchmaking can be tricky, for one thing. Console players will be matched together to avoid the disadvantage of playing against mouse-and-keyboard opponents, but if you’re a console player in a squad with a friend playing on PC? Then you’ll find yourself at a serious disadvantage. Fortnite mobile players, on the other hand, get paired with Fortnite on Switch. It’s basically the same issue; touch controls against a joypad is just as bad as pitting a joypad against mouse-and-keyboard.
PUBG Corp. is hoping to avoid any such matchmaking issues by keeping PC players separate when it brings PUBG cross-play to PS4 and Xbox One next month.
“This has been, hands down, the most requested feature since we launched on consoles,” says the announcement, “and we’re so happy to finally provide this for our console community on Xbox One and PlayStation 4.”
“Our first goal with cross-platform play was for 100 players from both console communities to be able to play in the same match,” the announcement continues. “Our second goal was to improve our matchmaking times, which we expect to be shorter due to the wider matchmaking pool.”
PUBG cross-play comes to test servers on PS4 and Xbox One in late September 2019. The feature is then expected – if all goes well – to roll out to the live servers in October.
