Apex Legends Cross-play Beta Begins on October 6th!

Players have long been clamoring for cross-play to be integrated in Apex Legends, and we’re finally on the brink of it happening. We already covered this bit of news a month ago, but now things are actually official!

So what does cross-play for Apex Legends really mean? Well, in short, PC (only on Origin at the moment), PlayStation 4, and Xbox One players will now be able to play on “unified” servers. If you’re a PC gamer, you’ll only match up with those who are also using mice and keyboards. Console gamers, on the other hand, will now compete on just a single server, so both PS4 and Xbox One combined.

Still, in-game parties can consist of both PC and console players. So if your friends are on one platform and you’re on the other, you’ll now be able to queue up together as a mixed party. Voice chat, of course, is also implemented regardless of platform. Furthermore, cross-play will be enabled by default, which is something to keep mind of. You can always disable it in your Settings menu if you’re not into this sort of thing, but your queue times will definitely be affected. The reason why is quite simple: you’ll then join a queue with like-minded players who’ve also disabled cross-play.

You’ll also be able to send cross-platform invites and see which devices your friends are playing on! All in all, this patch might not be immense in size, but it sure does bring some goodies!

Aftermarket Collection Event

Cross-play isn’t the only novelty this time around. There’s also a brand-new limited-time game mode: Flashpoint!

The gist of this mode is that it revolves around so called “Flash Points.” They’re massive zones that are scattered across the Kings Canyon. They’re invaluable because they’ll regenerate your shields and HP over time. Because there are no healing items in the entire game mode, fighting over these regenerative points will be of the utmost importance.

It’s not exactly deathmatch, but it’s not far off either. Finally, the circle in this mode follows “Always Be Closing” rules. This means that it’ll always close around a Flash Point, therefore forcing players to fight from start to finish. Also, as is always the case, there are multiple event-related cosmetics shipping to live servers. You can check them out at the official Apex Legends website.

Overall, these are quite exciting changes. If you’ve been looking for an excuse to log in and queue up, now would be as good a time as any!