Battlefield 2042 offers a crossplay feature at launch. The open beta also has such a feature, but it is highly restricted.
How does crossplay work in Battlefield 2042? According to EA, the crossplay feature of BF2042 is essentially divided into two parts:
- Players on PC, PS5, or Xbox Series X|S can play together via crossplay.
- Players on Xbox One and PS4 can only play among themselves.
The reason for this lies in the technical limitations of the older consoles. There will be significant differences to PC and the new consoles. The maps will be smaller, and fewer players will be possible per match. You can find an overview of the crossplay feature here. What about the open beta?
Open Beta has crossplay, but you cannot form a group with other players
What does that mean? You can already access crossplay in the open beta and thus play with players from other platforms.
However, the party function is still disabled in the beta according to Henderson. So if you are on PS5 and want to play with friends on Xbox Series, you have no direct communication option and no way to form a group.
Alternatives like Skype or Discord can help with communication, but you would have to run them simultaneously on phones or PCs. This is a downside, as in a multiplayer shooter, seeing is important, but so is sound, to hear enemy movements.
However, a shared group is currently not possible, and you cannot influence whether you end up in the same session.
Will this remain the case at launch? No. At the release of Battlefield 2042, crossplay is expected to offer these functions.
The reactions to this information are very mixed. While some players are disappointed because they want to play with their friends from other platforms, others are less bothered. After all, it is a beta, and one cannot expect that all features are already included.
Many also hope that they can completely disable crossplay and that there will be dedicated servers for each platform. This is partly due to concerns about cheaters. CoD players already faced this problem in the beta of CoD Vanguard. You can find further reactions under Henderson’s Twitter post (via Twitter) or in a corresponding reddit post. (via reddit.com)
When does the open beta of Battlefield 2042 start? The preload starts at the beginning of next week. Following that, a two-day early access phase will begin, after which the beta opens its doors for all players.
Here are the dates for beta week:
- The preload starts on October 5 at 9:00 AM
- The early access phase starts on October 6 at 9:00 and runs until October 7
- From October 8 at 9:00 AM, all players can participate
- The beta ends on October 10 at 9:00 AM
On which platforms will the beta take place? As far as we know so far, the beta will take place on all platforms where Battlefield 2042 is released: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One.
When is the full release? Battlefield 2042 is expected to be released on November 19, 2021.
An overview of the known information about Battlefield 2042 can be found here summarized: All information about the multiplayer shooter – release, beta, system requirements
