APEX LEGENDS MOBILE CROSS PLATFORM DOWNLOAD
When your game is free to download on any platform, it’s critical that the time and money that players invest into getting those digital rewards be consistent across those platforms, because the collection of those items is the main reward structure of those games.īungie figured that out a while ago, back when it transitioned Destiny 2 to a free-to-play title - it now allows players to sync their in-game items to whatever platform they’re playing on (even if Bungie is still working out cross-platform gameplay). When in-game items are the whole point, it’s essential to make them available everywhereĪnd that’s doubly true for free-to-play games like Apex Legends, which live or die on the strength and size of their multiplayer community and the money that they can make off selling cosmetic items.
With massive titles that can take dozens, if not hundreds of hours of players’ time, locking down progression to a single console or platform just doesn’t make sense. In 2021, offering cross-progression and cross-play is increasingly becoming table stakes for major games. You can play with friends on any platform (well, except iOS), from any platform, with all of your skins, emotes, items, and unlocks.Īnd even recent Ubisoft games have added cross-play and cross-progression through Ubisoft Connect, letting players start playing sprawling RPGs like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on one system and continue on another. Fortnite and Rocket League are the gold standard here: simply log into Epic’s free-to-play games on your platform of choice, and all your stuff is there waiting for you. Control’s lack of next-gen saves are tied to updates to the game engine that prevented Remedy from offering continuity for existing players.īut there’s also a wealth of games in 2021 that show that a better way is possible. Overwatch’s skins are heavily tied to its loot box economy, which are all purchased through the platform-specific stores, which can complicate things. Obviously, there are real technical and legal issues here. But there’s no crossover for saves between those titles - if you started Control on a PS4, then that’s where your save is stuck forever, even if you want to try streaming it from an internet service or playing with fancier graphics on a next-gen console. Overwatch, for example, has been struggling with the lack of cross-platform progression and gameplay for years, despite the emphasis that Blizzard puts on cosmetic content unlocks.Ĭontrol has been ported to plenty of platforms since its launch, including Amazon’s Luna, a cloud-based version for the Nintendo Switch, and a next-gen version for PS5 and Xbox One. Unfortunately, the lack of cross-progression is more common than not for most cross-platform games, both on the Switch and on other platforms. “It’s a complex challenge of multiple accounts existing for various users that we have to resolve or merge, there are legal and contractual things to navigate with purchasing on other platforms and having those carryover and also some technical challenges.”Īpex Legends is by no means the first mainstream game to run into this issue.
Grenier explains that there are a mix of issues preventing Respawn from offering cross-progression, with contractual, legal, and technical problems that need to be sorted out. “We’re a ways out from being able to offer.