Gears of War 4 players on Xbox One and Windows 10 can now play each other in versus mode, Microsoft and developer The Coalition announced today. Competitive cross-platform play is now available in the game’s Social Quickplay playlist.
The addition of Xbox One vs. Windows 10 cross-play is “planned to be a permanent move for the future of Social Quickplay, with the first few months being a ‘trial period’ in order to monitor player feedback,” said The Coalition community manager Liam Ashley.
Gears of War 4’s Core and Competitive playlists won’t support cross-platform play, however.
“Despite the closely matched performance between users on both platforms ... we always want to ensure our Ranked experiences are as closely matched and competitive as possible,” the developer said.
The Coalition held a cross-platform multiplayer test in Gears of War 4 late last year. Based on data from more than 750,000 matches, the developer concluded that Xbox One vs. Windows 10 cross-play worked well enough to implement it in the game.
Here are some of the stats from that test, via The Coalition:
- Over 115,000 Unique Participants – 91/9 split from Xbox to Windows 10
- Average of 6.2 matches played by Xbox users, with 11.2 for Windows 10 users
- Over 90% of all matches during the weekend included a mix of Windows 10 and Xbox One players
- Windows 10 and Xbox players had closely-matched results when comparing Average KD, Score and Kills per match based on skill ratings
- The quality of matches improved for both Xbox and Windows 10 users – social lobbies had a higher average user count, and players completed 95% of all social matches entered vs 90% prior to Cross-play Weekend
Gears of War 4 is part of Microsoft’s Xbox Play Anywhere program, meaning those who purchase the game on either Xbox One or Windows 10 have access to both versions. Gears of War 4 joins a handful of other games, like Killer Instinct and Rocket League, in supporting cross-platform multiplayer.