PSA: Gears of War 4 Cross Play Doesn't Support Versus Multiplayer Between PC and Xbox One

Gears of War 4 is already available for those who purchased its Ultimate Edition, although the title will be available to play for everyone else in just a couple of hours. Gears of War fans are excited to experience the game on both their console and PC thanks to it being an Xbox Play Anywhere title, which also means we’ll be able to enjoy cross-platform multiplayer. Unfortunately, those looking to have a cross-platform war will have to look elsewhere as Gears of War 4 won’t allow cross-platform Versus play.

Given that Xbox Play Anywhere is a new feature for Xbox One and PC players, this is the first time such a limitation has been put in place. Previous Xbox Play Anywhere titles, such as ReCore and Forza Horizon 3, didn’t offer any kind of competitive multiplayer modes, making this a surprising, but not completely unexpected, move by Microsoft.

I experienced this limitation over the weekend as I attempted to take part in a Versus multiplayer match on PC, with barely anyone to play with at the moment. When I did find some players, they all had an icon of a PC, indicating they were playing on their computer and not their Xbox One. I found this to be rather strange, so I went to the leaderboards section and saw a number of my friends had high scores in Versus modes. This lead me jump to the Xbox One version as it obviously meant everyone was playing there rather than on PC.

While I can understand why Microsoft would want to limit its Versus cross-platform play in Gears of War 4, I feel it could still allow both platforms to fight each other. One simple way of doing this would be to allow those who are playing with a controller the opportunity to join Xbox One players, leaving those who prefer to play with a mouse and keyboard to fight among themselves.

I personally enjoy playing the PC version of Gears of War 4 much more than the Xbox One version as it looks much better and I can always play with the DualShock 4 if I want. Hopefully Microsoft will reconsider this limitation as I’m sure many who are enjoying Gears of War 4’s Xbox Play Anywhere feature don’t want to be forced to a single platform to play Versus multiplayer modes.