How to play Minecraft Dungeons cross-play early with this easy glitch

Minecraft Dungeons
Minecraft Dungeons (Image credit: Microsoft)

Minecraft Dungeons melds Microsoft's blocky franchise with the action role-playing space, providing an accessible dungeon-crawling experience, akin to Diablo. The game's focus on leveling and loot pushes players to explore every lane of its sprawling levels, with the cooperative multiplayer elevating its broad range of class-building systems. Gearing up with friends highlights the best of the experience, formulating synergies, and enjoying the adventure along the way.

Developer, Mojang Studios, has detailed plans to support cross-platform multiplayer via a free update "in the near future." As of launch, players remain bound to their respective platforms on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

However, Minecraft Dungeons cross-play appears partially functional behind the scenes, with an easy glitch unlocking cross-play, despite its absence at launch.

How to play Minecraft Dungeons cross-play via PC

Minecraft Dungeons Cross Play Invite

Source: Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Windows Central)

While cross-play appears a little way out for Minecraft Dungeons, one Reddit user has found a way to seemingly bypass its restrictions, with support already present behind the scenes. The glitch allows Xbox One and PC players to party up together — and we're currently testing with Nintendo Switch. All it requires is some brief menu navigation, as outlined below.

  1. Open Minecraft Dungeons on PC.
  2. Sit on the Main Menu.
  3. On Xbox One, have a friend send a Minecraft Dungeons game invite to your Xbox Live account.
  4. Press the Win key + G.

Click the ✓ on the social widget notification to accept the invite

Source: Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Windows Central)
  1. Click the on the social widget notification to accept the invite. The "This invitation is no longer valid" error message will display.
  2. Click OK.

Minecraft Dungeons Cross Play Error Message

Source: Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Windows Central)
  1. Press the H key to switch hero.

Minecraft Dungeons Cross Play Change Hero

Source: Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Windows Central)
  1. Press the S key to change your skin.

Minecraft Dungeons Cross Play Change Skin

Source: Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Windows Central)
  1. Click DONE. You will now enter the Xbox One game session.

The glitch highlights the foundations of cross-play already implemented within Minecraft Dungeons, likely launching over the coming weeks. In our limited testing, we were able to party up in the camp and embark on missions as a group, between Xbox One and PC.

Minecraft Dungeons mandates an Xbox Live account for online play on PC, and cross-play leverages this shared network already present across platforms. While the game seemingly queues up games in behind the scenes, the glitch bypasses a likely temporary block until officially launched.

With the final pieces assumedly coming together for full cross-play between Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC, expect more updates on official support shortly.

Minecraft Dungeons

Main

Matt Brown

Matt Brown was formerly a Windows Central's Senior Editor, Xbox & PC, at Future. Following over seven years of professional consumer technology and gaming coverage, he’s focused on the world of Microsoft's gaming efforts. You can follow him on Twitter @mattjbrown.