Epic Games has announced that it has expanded its free cross-play overlay to consoles, making PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo cross-play easier for platform makers than ever before. Epic has been one of the fiercest proponents of cross-play gaming, having famously forced Sony to agree to enabling cross-play in Fortnite.
Epic’s cross-play overlay works “seamlessly” on PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo
First introduced on PC in June 2022, the cross-play dev tools are free of cost to games using Epic Online Services. A number of popular third-party multiplayer games utilize this service, including Rocket League and Fall Guys.
Epic has promised that the system will streamline friend management for players, and save console manufacturers and developers the headache of sorting all the elements out themselves. All players have to do is log into their Epic Games accounts and get going.
“The Epic Online Services cross-play overlay now works seamlessly on Steam, Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Sony PlayStation, and Epic Games Store, enabling players to find their friends across the over 750 million Epic Games accounts, connect, and play,” Epic wrote, urging companies to utilize its services. “Epic Online Services are battle-tested and used by hundreds of games at scale today.”
Sony was infamously against cross-play in the past, but has since warmed up to the idea.
