At long last, one of the most frequently-requested features is coming to Apex Legends; cross-play. Respawn has announced that the first ever Apex Legends Cross-Play Beta will be launching early next week as part of the upcoming Aftermarket Collection Event, starting on the 6th of October.
The First Apex Legends Cross-Play Beta
“Since the launch of Apex Legends, cross-play has been one of the most requested features from our players who want the ability to play with their friends on other platforms,” writes Respawn; “During the cross-play beta, players will have full access to cross-play functionality while we collect data, test the feature at scale, and most importantly, listen to you, the fans, for feedback.
The Apex Legends Cross-Play Beta will be available for players on PS4, Xbox One, and Origin. (The feature will also be available on Steam once the game launches on that platform later this year.) When the Beta goes live, cross-play will be enabled by default, although players can manually disable it if they wish. The beta will allow players to find friends across platforms simply by searching for usernames. Cross-platform parties will be able to use in-game voice chat.
However, there is one notable feature which will be absent from the beta; cross-progression. According to Respawn, the developers do believe that this is an important feature. However, it won’t be available in the game initially. Players can reportedly expect to hear more on this feature around the time that Apex Legends launches on Steam.
When it comes to matchmaking, the Cross-Play Beta will match console players together and PC players together. As such, keyboard-and-mouse players should be kept separate from controller users. However, this matchmaking rule is waived if players using both control schemes are in the same party. In such a case, players will always be matched into keyboard-and-mouse matches.