Here’s why ‘Elden Ring: Nightreign’ doesn’t have crossplay

Elden Ring: Nightreign is taking a lot of bold decisions for FromSoftware. It is the studio’s first major multiplayer game. However, it isn’t completely diverging from its roots as the studio is not bringing a much-asked-for feature from their games to Nightreign: crossplay.

• READ MORE: The biggest and most exciting video games coming out in 2025

Here’s the full breakdown on why and FromSoftware’s history with multiplayer.

Elden Ring: Nightreign does not have full crossplay. It does feature crossplay between PS5 and PS4 players, as well as Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. But, you cannot play with players from different console families or between PC and console. This follows the trend of other FromSoftware games, which have the same crossplay functionality.

Ultimately, the studio hasn’t explained why it hasn’t introduced crossplay into its games, including Nightreign. However, it is likely down to the cost of implementing the networking infrastructure, testing it, and keeping it running. It has taken a long time for Japanese studios to more widely implement game features and technology seen in the West, such as rollback netcode in fighting games and crossplay.

FromSoftware is one of the only studios yet to do this, and in reality, they don’t have much of an incentive to. Its games will still sell millions of copies, and players will simply decide to play together on the same platform where they can if multiplayer is that important to them and their experience.

Still, there is some hope that we may see crossplay implemented into Elden Ring Nightreign, especially if it is popular and there are enough calls from FromSoftware to introduce it.

For even more on Elden Ring: Nightreign ahead of its release on May 30, 2025, check out what players thought of it when they went hands-on earlier this year during the tech test.

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