When Battlegrounds comes to the Xbox One later this year, developer Bluehole would like to implement crossplay between the PC and Xbox players. While technically managable, the concern is more around KB/mouse versus controller players and how that balancing would occur. Typically, it results in the console players have some form of aim assist like we’ve seen in Halo, Gears of War, and other games. While crossplay has worked well in these recent titles, executive producer Chang Han Kim is still concerned.
“Cross network play between the PC and the console is definitely something we want to do down the road, and we don’t anticipate we’ll have any technical issues with that. But, when you consider the competitive side of the game, I do feel that there’s a balance issue between controllers and keyboard and mouse. That’s what’s making it difficult for us to do right away. If we’re going to allow players to use controllers we need to have the aim assist added in and things like that. We’re not going to be supporting it right away, but it’s something we’d like to look into later.”
Our Take
Crossplay is becoming more and more common, and in our opinion, that’s fantastic. Players regardless of platform should be brought together to enjoy games together as often as possible. That said, the competitive side of games does require balancing and that can be tough to do effectively. We’ll be watching Battlegrounds closely through the rest of the year as it has been a tremendous hit and we’re excited for Xbox players to get their hands on it, especially on the Xbox One X, later this year.
