Well over a year since its original release, Apex Legends is finally offering cross-play as a feature for its players. As part of the new Aftermarket Collection Event, Respawn has launched a Cross-Play Beta which offers Apex Legends Cross-Play for all players across both consoles and PC.
The New Apex Legends Cross-Play Beta
Cross-Play has long been one of the most fan-requested features for Apex Legends, especially as other battle royale titles have opted to offer such a feature. At long last, Cross-Play is now available, alongside the Aftermarket Collection Event, which began recently. During the beta, cross-play is active by default for all players across the Xbox One, PS4, and Origin for PC. (Although players can choose to disable it if they so choose.)
According to Respawn, the beta affords them the opportunity to; “collect data, test the feature at scale, and most importantly, listen to you, the fans, for feedback”. The feature allows players to search by username to locate friends on any platform. Plus, it allows gamers to use the in-game voice chat for cross-platform parties. However, the beta will not feature cross-progression, another often-requested feature.
Although cross-progression won’t be available for now, that doesn’t mean that it won’t ever be available. Respawn has confirmed that such a feature is planned to come to Apex Legends eventually. However, it will reportedly take some extra time. No firm release date for this supplementary feature has been announced. Nevertheless, Respawn has indicated that more details about cross-progression should emerge around the time that Apex Legends launches on Steam, later this year. (Once again, a firm date for that release has yet to be announced.)
Respawn has yet to confirm whether cross-play will remain available once the Aftermarket Collection Event ends. Presumably, if the feature does become unavailable after the end of the Beta, the wait for a full rollout should be relatively short.