Cross-platform play might come to PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

With PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds [official site] heading to Xbox One later this year, developer Bluehole has been thinking about how it can bring players from both platforms together. Cross-platform play definitely looks like it’s on the cards, but there are still obstacles when it comes to competitive play.

“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,” executive producer Chang Han Kim told VG247. But there’s one notable hurdle.

“[W]hen you consider the competitive side of the game, I do feel that there’s a balance issue between controllers and keyboard and mouse,” he continued. “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.”

Crossplay always sounds great on paper -- after all, who doesn’t want more people to play with? But even at the best of times there’s often an underlying tension between console and PC gamers, frequently devolving into petty arguments over platform superiority. It’s not hard to imagine some PC players getting annoyed by the fact that their Xbox One cousins use aim assist. Still, maybe we’ll all be able to get along! That’s the dream.

Along with the possibility of cross-platform play, Bluehole’s plans include frequent updates, not just during this Early Access phase.

“Although our business model is that of a paid, premium package game, essentially this is just an online game,” said Kim. “Online games consistently update new content and provide it as a service, not just a one-time thing. Regardless of us being early access or 1.0 consistent content updates will definitely be made to it as an online game. Us getting out of early access and getting into 1.0 won’t mean we’ve wrapped up content. We’ll have more content coming in at all times.”

Battlegrounds also received its ‘Month 3’ update earlier this week, introducing a new weapon and loot drop changes. In the update post on Steam, Brendan ‘PlayerUnknown’ Greene took a moment to detail the team’s efforts when it comes to dealing with cheating.

“This is an ongoing battle, but one we are committed to fighting,” he said. “We have banned 25,000+ users in the last 3 months, and work daily with BattlEye to add new protections and detections for cheats appearing on the market.”

That’s a lot of people no longer able to hunt the most dangerous game. There's loads more info through at the VG247 interview, so have a read.