According to a possible online leak, Respawn may be working on enabling an Apex Legends crossplay system in order to facilitate players on Xbox One, PS4, and PC to play with one another. Although every leak such as this should be taken with a grain of salt, the move would make sense given Respawn’s focus on promotion for Season 3. Not to mention the fact that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will have crossplay at launch.
Is Respawn Working Towards Enabling Apex Legends Crossplay?
The Apex Legends crossplay leak comes courtesy of Twitter user That1MiningGuy, who uncovered references in the game’s code that seem to point towards crossplay. They state that they found a system called “Nucleus,” which appears to be a way for Respawn to standardise player IDs across the three different platforms. There likely wouldn’t be a need for this unless you were planning on integrating those players into the same environment; as crossplay would do.
Of course, it’s wise to take online leaks with a grain of salt. Even if they do prove accurate, it could be something that’s still months away from implementation. Indeed, several past Apex Legends leaks have teased content which hasn’t made it into the game until months later. (While some have never actually appeared.) In this case, however, introducing Apex Legends crossplay would make sense for Respawn’s current marketing strategy.
Following on from the end of Season 2, Respawn appears to be making an effort to actively promote the game for the launch of Season 3; presumably in order to attract new players. (Or indeed, entice old players to give it another try now that it has much more content.) The launch of two retail editions of the game in mid-October certainly points towards that effort. Whether or not we see it soon, crossplay would be a major selling point for Apex Legends. Given that Modern Warfare will have the feature at launch, other online titles may now start pushing for crossplay as standard in order to compete.