One of the best parts of battle royale games is their accessibility. Alongside being free-to-play, a number of prominent titles in the genre have embraced cross-platform play to allow users to party up with friends no matter what platform is their favorite.
One game that has complete crossplay support is Apex Legends. Though EA Games’ battle royale lost a lot of its early momentum due to how slowly it added features that became standard in other games in the genre, Apex Legends boasts pretty much everything a fan could hope for in 2021.
Here is how to enjoy Apex Legends cross-platform play.
If you’re looking to party up in Apex Legends with people using the same platform, things are easy. Apex Legends automatically imports your friends list from whichever platform you’re playing on, whether it’s the PlayStation Network, Steam, or Xbox Live. If you’re looking for cross-platform play, it’s not hard to pull off but it’s hidden behind a variety of menus.
To do so, select the diamond-shaped buttons on the main menu to bring up the invitation menu. Select the “Find Friends” option and enter the username of the friend you’d like to invite. Select their name from the menu and send an invite. They’ll get a party invite as they would from anyone else, allowing you to jump into a game together.
Unfortunately, there is no cross progression in Apex Legends at this time.
Cross progression is where players can use the cosmetic items they own and gain progress towards rewards on the same account, regardless of which platform they’re playing on at the time. This is useful for players who use multiple devices to play the same game.
Other battle royale games such as Fortnite allow players to have one account that can be used on everything from PC to consoles to mobile devices, and even games such as Teamfight Tactics have this function.
Alas, Apex Legends forces players to use separate profiles from platform to platform. This means if a player spends a great deal of time unlocking skins and leveling up their battle pass on PC, they will not be able to move their progress over to PlayStation 4, or even from PlayStation 4 to Xbox.Â
The lone example where this can work is within the same platform. Progression can be shared between Steam and Origin, the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, and Xbox One and Series X/S.
Respawn Entertainment was adamant that cross-progression wasn’t possible when doing the media rounds shortly after Apex Legends’ release. The company’s tune has softened a bit on this front but there’s still no real estimate for when cross-progression might come. This is quite unfortunate, given the fact that players will have to purchase or unlock legends on each platform in order to use them.
Apex Legends has crossplay on all its platforms, including:
Though Apex Legends has not yet launched for the Nintendo Switch, the official trailer released by Nintendo for the game explicitly states that cross-platform play will be included with the Switch version of the game. Apex Legends will arrive on Nintendo Switch on March 9, with free battle pass levels, bonus XP, and an exclusive Pathfinder skin.
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