PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds studio considering cross-play between Xbox One and PC

By Matt Brown
published

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) has shaped up to be an unexpected hit in recent months – quickly becoming the success story of Steam's "Early Access" program. The game's simple battle royale mechanics have attracted millions of players since launch, with plans recently announced to launch on Xbox One this fall. The game's Korean development studio, Bluehole, has now shown interest in bridging the gap between platforms through cross-platform play.

Speaking with VG247, PUBG's executive producer Chang Han Kim expressed the studio's interest in multiplayer between the Xbox One and PC versions of the game.

Cross network play between the PC and the console is definitely something we want to do down the road, and we don't anticipate we'll have any technical issues with that.

Continuing, Kim did express some concerns regarding the differences between input methods – and the resulting assists that may be required for a level playing field.

But… when you consider the competitive side of the game, I do feel that there's a balance issue between controllers and keyboard and mouse. That's what's making it difficult for us to do right away. If we're going to allow players to use controllers we need to have the aim assist added in and things like that. We're not going to be supporting it right away, but it's something we'd like to look into later.

Cross-play has been in the news as of late, with both Minecraft and Rocket League rolling out the feature across numerous platforms. Although some controversies are arising, many developers have shown their interest in such features.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is available now on Steam with an Xbox One release planned for later this year, sporting support for the Xbox One X console. Let us know if you'd like to see cross-platform multiplayer for PUBG in the comments.

Playerunknown's Battlegrounds for PC preview: This new battle royale deserves your attention

Matt Brown
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.

33 Comments
  • Given it's a competitive game, it should be first and foremost 60 fps. Then it should give players the options to play at max graphics while allowing 1080p60 or 900p60 or minimum settings, equivalent PC low settings, while still being locked to 60 fps. Always bonus points for dynamic resolution and dynamic supersampling.
  • Without mouse and keyboard it is bad also PC is full cheaters and macros.
  • Good grief, do you honestly think that consoles are immune to cheating? This sounsd like this is coming from someone who either never played a PC game online or hasn't played one in like 10 years. Have you ever played COD, Battlefield, Titanfall and a slew of other games online on the Xbox 360/One PS3/4? those games have players who are unkillable and clearly have some sort of auto aim on. Hell GTA5 on the PS3 is nearly 4 years old and it's online is still virtually unplayable due to modders. Dont be so naive as to think PC gaming is the only platform affected by cheaters.
  • please prove auto aim on XBOX ONE. 360 and PS3 had JTAG with some stuff
  • I'm not posting the links here, but you could find it yourself by doing a quick search on YouTube to find dozens of videos on how to mod the Xbox One or the Xbox One controller for auto aim. My point still stands; to suggest that online gaming on consoles is immue to cheating is preposterous.
  • Console players aren't any better when they use KB/M emulator hardware. Last game I tried playing online on Xbox One was Titanfall 2 and on my 4-5th game already there was a player obliterating our entire team as soon as they spawned and walked out of the base - As you could see from his Killcam the moment you were in his vision the crosshair was basically stuck to you - I call MAJOR bs doing that with a controller especially since I didn't saw it happening with other players killing me - Not even close.
  • Modded controller possibly. Sadly happens in every online shooter. Kids like to look like a big shot but in actual fact they're just lazy cheaters.
  • Couldn't developers write some detection algorithms that identify extreme outliers on things like KD ratios and shot accuracy and then, depending on the number of potential offenders, investigate them in some way? I suppose it's not worth the resources, which is unfortunate because cheaters really ruin the fun for everyone else.
  • XIM4 adapter.  It gives console gamers are serious advantage, like 100x with keyboard and mouse plus aim assist.  They should be banned on cosoles.
  • I would be happy if they do add it optionally. Even if i get destroyed in shootouts, would still be fun playing with friends cross platform. If nothing else controller makes for a better driver. Large player pool means faster games too.
  • I think they should just do it. Most of us don't really give a crap whether somebody else gets to use KB+M, put in the option to disable cross platform for those who do care.
  • Giving players options is always a good move, but personally, I would not want to play against PC players, given the huge advantages they would get with better graphics, framerates and input controls.
  • actually, better graphics is a disadvantage. People who really play conpetitive seriously put the settings to low to have a better framerate and mostly because it mean less vegetation hiding the other players.
  • Rate them, the skills. There is good console players, and bad pc players. Matchmaking players of same skill will sort that problem out.
  • This is what I came here to say. I tried, as an experiment, playing battlefield 4 with a controller. I stayed pretty much in the middle of the pack as far as score was for every match. It may be a hinderence (for some, not all) but you can easily lump everyone together with the same skill level. Halo 2 did it very well.
  • I'd like for PC players to put their money where their mouth is in the mouse and keyboard vs controller. I don't think they have an advantage.
  • Honestly as much as I prefer console over PC, you'd be naive to think a mouse doesn't have an advantage over a controller when it comes to aiming.
    Hell you'd be surprised at how common aim assist is on consoles and how much worse off you'd be if it wasn't a thing
  • good point... a strong exmaple of this is Zelda BOTW... no aim assist there and damn it's a pain. 
  • It's not so bad if you utilise the motion control aim (did figure only the right Joycon has it), although it can be annoying when your mind has a blip and you forget about it lol.
  • I couldn't stand the motion controls. I tend to just turn them off if I can in switch games
  • A lot of PC games use cheaters like AimJunkies https://www.aimjunkies.com/ that are indetectable. This is bad for XBOX comunity. EXAMPLE in PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS https://www.aimjunkies.com/cheats-hacks-aimbot/playerunknowns-battlegrounds  
  • And if crossplay is implemented properly, it becomes a non-issue.
  • It always be a exploit in PC. Always... Look the full list undetected. https://forum.aimjunkies.com/hackstatus.php Maybe UWP games fix this since it is sandboxed.
  • No interest in cross play.
  • Yes! Please do once people see how well it works more and more people will ditch Sony.
  • This game on the PC is in horrible shape.  Even with my 1080GTX and i7-6700K, 32gigs of DDR4, and a SSD I get between 50-80FPS at 1080p on ultra.  Compare that to something like BF1 where I get 130fps.  Also BF1 looks so much better.  The textures in this game look like I am on a Xbox 360.   It needs some serious optimizations and hopefully by going to the console (focused hardware/OS/drivers) and possibly getting help for MS they can tune it on the Xbox to improve the peformance.
  • the fun in this game is not the graphics
  • 100% agree.  That said this game on the PC just feels wonky.  I try opening a door etc sometimes 2-3 times.  It just needs some serious code optimization, netcode, graphics etc. In fact with the cheating so bad I will just wait until it comes out on the Xbox and hope for it to get better.
  • LIke almost any PC games. Full of Cheaters. This is why I stop gaming on PC Check this https://www.aimjunkies.com/cheats-hacks-aimbot/playerunknowns-battlegrounds
  • I'm surprised the article says its so popular because I think it's quite rough and wonky - Not that polished really. Feels more like a mod
  • Now I know why someone called me a "hacker" in Gears. Guess they thought I was using some type of exploit since I was playing on PC. Don't think you have an advantage with KBM in that game. I always play with Xbox One controller either way. Can't do KBM unfortunately and not willing to learn. 
  • Just add a server option "pads only" => only console/pc players with pads can go in It's just like separating pc from consoles, but pc players can join console friends if they have a pad, and console players can join pc players if they own KBM or explicitly accept playing with a pad against KBMs
  • I'll play against anybody. Not bothered as long as I'm enjoying it. I rarely have time to game these days anyway lol