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Apex Legends cross-play launches Oct. 6

Starting next week, players on PlayStation, Xbox and PC will be able to party up and play together online.

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Ry Crist
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Apex Legends duos
Respawn Entertainment

Apex Legends, a popular free-to-play, battle royale-style first-person shooter, is launching cross-play for PlayStation, Xbox and PC gamers starting next week, Oct. 6. The feature comes as part of the Aftermarket Collection Event, which also features free rewards and themed cosmetics, as well as a new limited-time mode called Flashpoint.

"Since the launch of Apex Legends, cross-play has been one of the most requested features from our players who want the ability to play with their friends on other platforms," said Chad Grenier, game director for Apex Legends. "During the cross-play beta, players will have full access to cross-play functionality while we collect data, test the feature at scale, and most importantly, listen to you, the fans, for feedback."

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Starting Oct. 6, gamers will be able to play Apex Legends online with friends who don't use the same console or platform.

EA

Cross-platform play will be enabled by default at launch, Grenier said, though Xbox One gamers will need to make sure that an additional setting is enabled in their console's system settings. Parties using cross-play will be able to use in-game voice chat, but the game won't support cross progression, where each player's character progress and cosmetics update regardless of what console you're playing on. Grenier said to expect to hear more on that topic when the game, available now for PC gamers via Origin, launches on Steam later this year.

Grenier also offered some details on how cross-play will work with regard to matchmaking.

"Before cross-play, each platform would only play with and against other users on the same platform," he said. "Now all console players will play together, and PC players will continue to play only with other PC players. We want to ensure that keyboard and mouse PC players are not being matched against console players, for reasons that should be obvious.

"If, however, an Xbox One or PlayStation 4 player and PC player party up together, they will be put into PC matches," Grenier added. "This ensures that the console games don't have PC players in them, but still allows for the console player to play with their PC friend if they opt-in."

For more details on Apex Legends cross-play, you can read the full announcement here.