Battlefield 6 Will Feature Console-Only Crossplay Confirmed, Though How to Turn It On Is Different Than What We’re Used To
Back in August, we reported on how Battlefield 6 will feature what DICE calls “preferred crossplay” wherein consoles will be matched with another console first, and once it has exhausted that, it’ll then dip into the PC player pool.
If you’re one of the many who just want full console-only crossplay, we have good news for you: Battlefield Studios devs have confirmed that this feature is indeed present in the shooter, contrary to earlier reports.
Battlefield 6 Console-Only Crossplay Is Available in Matchmaking and It’s Easy to Turn On
UPDATE: EA has clarified that there is NO console-only crossplay, and it seems the game’s own Senior Console Combat Designer has made a mistake. Read the full explanation to get a better understanding of it.
ORIGINAL STORY:
In a new interview, Battlefield Studios, the four studios tapped to work on Battlefield 6, which include DICE, Motive, Criterion, and Ripple Effect, confirmed the feature will be available at launch.
This is something Technical Director Christian Buhl and Senior Console Combat Designer Matthew Nickerson discussed, and even mentioned how to turn it on. While there is still “preferred crossplay,” players can opt out of playing with PC players completely.
Nickerson explained, “Console-only crossplay happens if you turn it off. When you flip that switch, then you get, basically, console-only crossplay, and that is, we don’t fill with PC players.” When asked if this means PlayStation (PS5) players can play with Xbox (Xbox Series X|S) players if crossplay is turned off, Nickerson answered, “Yeah.”
There you have it. If you want to turn on console-only crossplay in Battlefield 6, you’ll need to turn crossplay off in the game’s settings.
While some gamers might not want to play with PC players, Nickerson explained how they’re integrating it in a way that console players won’t feel at a disadvantage, and also discussed auto-aim changes.
“Crossplay, generally, what we have on consoles is a simple toggle that’s actually in-game. Not every product that launches has that available to the player. Some players have to dig through option menus to actually turn off crossplay, like on the Xbox or something. We have it in-game, and it’s just a simple toggle on/off,” Nickerson said.
Battlefield Studios Devs Explain How Input Preference and Crossplay Work in Battlefield 6
Nickerson talked about input preferences and how it works with crossplay, “When it comes to preference input, we have just what it sounds like: If you’re a console player, we are looking for other console players in a set time frame, and then if we need to fill up the lobby more, we will look towards PC players. We’re very confident but also very keen to what crossplay means for Battlefield 6. We’ve gone the extra mile and put in a lot of effort in terms of balancing the inputs, understanding where the inputs lie [not just] in terms of relationship to general play styles but general performance of what they’re good at and maybe what they lack.”
The console dev also talked about aim assist and explained, “We’ve completely redone aim assist from our Battlefield 2042 version. We’ve added aim assist for what we call our ‘combat triangle’ now – and that’s infantry versus inventory, infantry versus vehicles, and vehicles versus vehicles – to give that cohesive experience if you are on controller, compared to, maybe, something that’s a little bit easier on keyboard and mouse. So [we’re] very dedicated to crossplay, and we’re trying to nail it across multiple vectors when it comes to crossplay. It’s just such an important aspect for us and for Battlefield 6.”
This is definitely good news for console gamers, since some do only want to matchmake against console players, and this gives them that option. By default, full crossplay will be turned on, so it’s not like the developers are discouraging players from matching against other platforms.
In other Battlefield 6 news, the game’s single-player campaign will get its first blowout at Tokyo Game Show 2025, which kicks off later this month.
Battlefield 6 will be available on October 10 for the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. While the release date of the Battle Royale mode of BF6 isn’t known yet, EA has confirmed that testing for it is starting this week.
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