Battlefield 2042 lets you opt-out of PC cross-play

Battlefield 2042 – keeping PC gamers apart (pic: EA)

EA has confirmed that Battlefield 2042 will have cross-play between console and PC players, but unlike Call Of Duty you can switch it off.

The idea of everyone playing together in the same game, regardless of the hardware they own, sounds very utopian, but the reality of cross-play has been rather less harmonic. Earlier in the week Call Of Duty fans were up in arms at being forced to play with PC gamers, upset that too large a percentage of them were using cheats.

That controversy is likely to have steered EA’s position on the issue, as they reveal that console owners will be able to opt out from playing with PC gamers on Battlefield 2042, and vice versa.

PlayStation 4 and Xbox One gamers will also be kept separate from the last gen consoles, as their matches can accommodate up to 128 players at a time but the older formats only the usual 64.

The revelations were made via a new EA Answers blog, which explains that the only major difference between the current and next gen versions is the smaller player count and appropriately smaller maps.

Battlefield 2042 will also support something called ‘cross-commerce’ which means whatever in-game items you buy on one format will be available on another, even between Xbox and PlayStation.

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The blog also reveals that the ‘technical playtest’ for the game will take place later this summer. It was supposed to be earlier but either way it’s a closed test and you can only take part by applying here and hoping EA pick your name out of a hat.

The next public look at the game will be at the EA Play Live event on July 22, when the currently secret third mode of the game will be revealed. Although it’s already rumoured to be something called BattleHub, that features remastered versions of older Battlefield maps.

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