The MMO Atlas gets crossplay! What should actually be a reason for joy currently leaves the community cold. The reason for this are the many problems of the PC version.
What is Atlas? Atlas is similar to the survival MMO ARK: Survival Evolved, where you are on a pirate adventure. You acquire a ship, explore islands, fight sea monsters along the way, and battle against other monsters on land. Collecting resources and survival are important factors.
Furthermore, you build a base together with your friends and must defend it against attacks from other players. PvP is generally very important and can lead to exciting naval battles.
What did the developers announce now? In the latest episode of Inside Xbox, game designer Erik Waananen explained that Atlas will be released on Xbox One on October 8. It will be distributed through the “Xbox Game Preview” program, and you can look forward to crossplay between Microsoft’s console and Steam.
Additionally, there will be many optimizations for the game, including bug fixes, performance improvements, and more. Support for mouse and keyboard control on Xbox One has also been announced. Erik Waananen has big plans for Atlas and wants to help the game finally succeed.
Xbox One and PC play together
What does crossplay mean? Starting October 8, it will be possible for players of Atlas on PC and Xbox One to interact together in the vast game world.
Why is this important? On one hand, crossplay is generally a feature that players wish for in many games. Especially online titles can benefit from a larger number of players.
On the other hand, Atlas has seen a significant drop in player numbers since its release in December 2018. During peak times, according to Steamcharts, 58,788 players were playing simultaneously, but currently, there are only 1,427.
What is the status of Atlas? As mentioned earlier, the player numbers are not looking good. Atlas had a strong start because many were convinced by the concept and found the idea and the pirate setting interesting.
However, it quickly became clear that Atlas was released rather unfinished. Players reported many bugs and performance issues. Although it is still in an early access phase, Atlas has been on the market for nine months now, and the same problems remain. Many feel that the developers are not progressing quickly enough.
Furthermore, players are demanding more content, and some game systems – such as base attacks when players are offline – need to be revised. Everything is currently dragging on.
And yet, Atlas shows that there is a very interesting MMO within it, which cannot fully develop its potential mainly due to the technical problems. When everything works, players can have a lot of fun in the naval battles, battles against monsters, and the expansion of their base.
Players currently see no great value in crossplay
What do the players think about the announcement? The mood in the Atlas community is bad. A lot of bugs, poor performance, and the best thing to do is never log out, as everything you worked for may disappear.
Many from the community see the great potential of Atlas. A pirate MMO in a vast world is very interesting for many. We also took a look at the title and recognized what it has to offer. However, this potential is currently not being utilized, and there are hardly any improvements in the desired direction – despite the release of major updates.
Therefore, the announcement of crossplay does not evoke great enthusiasm.
- Players wonder how Atlas will run on Xbox One when there are already performance issues on PC.
- Some are angry that the developers are now focusing on an Xbox version while the PC version is still so buggy.
- Others are wondering what is happening with the Playstation 4. Will Sony’s console be treated as poorly as it was for ARK?
- A significant part of the community considers crossplay pointless. Many players believe it will not save Atlas.
Is it worth it for Xbox players to check out Atlas? Atlas has its problems. The game is still in the early access phase. Everyone entering on October 8 through the “Xbox Game Preview” program must be aware of this.
However, anyone who wants to participate at such an early stage and can cope with technical problems and still developing game systems can play an unpolished diamond that the developers can hopefully make shine over time. Resilience to frustration and patience are a must.
Are you still playing Atlas? What do you think of the pirate MMO and that it will now get crossplay with Xbox One? Is it worth jumping in on Xbox?
