We recently wrote all about the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare beta — you can read about it here — which held its first, PS4 only weekend, last weekend. This weekend, the beta will be open to PC, PS4 and Xbox One and will be cross-play enabled. This means that for the first time in franchise history, players across all three platforms will be able to play together.
Activision says that “the introduction of crossplay in Modern Warfare is only one example of how Call of Duty is uniting the community in the ultimate multiplayer playground.” The publisher has also announced that there will be no Season Pass for Modern Warfare and post-launch maps will be free.
Given that cross-play is all-new for Modern Warfare, Activision has taken the time to explain how it’s going to work. Read on for details.
Modern Warfare Crossplay
The Modern Warfare cross-play open beta is the beginning of this new feature and will “provide not only a great opportunity for gamers to have a blast together, but also provide developers important feedback as they polish for worldwide release next month.”
Cross-play in Modern Warfare is optional and players are able to opt-in or opt-out. To enable cross-play, players will need a CoD account and will utilise matchmaking and benchmarking to make sure it provides as even a playing field as possible.
In Modern Warfare, crossplay has been designed to factor play balancing across differences in controller type. No one should feel an unfair advantage. Plus, players have choices on which control device they wish to use on any platform. Here are some examples you may experience:
- You can decide to use keyboard and mouse on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.
- You can decide to use a controller on PC.
- PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC players can all play against each other, provided they all utilise controllers, or all utilise KBM (a keyboard and mouse).
- You can place into a lobby where there are no control scheme filters, allowing you to play with players using both controllers and/or KBM across up to all three supported platforms.
By using a CoD account, players are able to create cross-platform friends lists and parties which enables quick and easy play for all three platforms together. Developer Infinity Ward delved deeper into cross-play in a recent stream.
To promote cross-play, Activision and Infinity Ward will release all post-launch content across all three platforms simultaneously. This removes a longstanding tradition that saw Call of Duty content launch on one platform first. It was Xbox 360 last generation and has been PS4 this gen.
The Modern Warfare crossplay beta will begin on September 20 in Early Access and will be open to all players from September 22 to 24.
Modern Warfare will be available on October 25, 2019.
