Epic Games is making crossplay integration a lot easier for game devs by expanding its free crossplay overlay from PC to console.
The company announced in its latest blog post that it is making the crossplay overlay that it introduced last summer available with initial support to games on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch while enhancing its capabilities on platforms it already supports, including the Epic Games Store and Steam. The tool will make it easier for game devs to connect console gamers with over 750 million Epic Games users.
“The crossplay overlay offers a ubiquitous way to authenticate players, streamline friend management, and provide game invite and joinability functionality that’s designed to be compliant with native platform requirements,” Epic said. “Crossplay enables bigger games, bigger audiences, and growth for the global games industry. With the added support for the major console platforms, Epic Online Services now enables you to connect more players with a single overlay.”
Epic Online Services’ crossplay overlay enables game devs to integrate friends lists from every gaming platform into one giant lists, making it easier for console and PC players to find each other across platforms and invite them for a gameplay session on Fortnite or any other game that supports crossplay. Plus, people who weren’t PC players and never had an Epic Games account to begin with can create a new account from any console they choose and link their active native platform account to any other platform they may log in to without issue.
Although plenty of games have featured crossplay in recent years, Epic’s crossplay overlay just makes it easier for devs to implement into their games, and frees gamers of the burden of buying certain consoles once crossplay is made available on certain games.
Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.
