Xbox One/PC Cross-Play Went Live for Gears of War 4 Today

Today, Gears of War 4 developer The Coalition announced that cross-play between Xbox One and PC players for Gears 4’s multiplayer is now live.

According to the announcement in today’s Xbox Wire post, the new feature is only available in the Social Quickplay mode and it will be left out of the Core and Competitive playlists. The developer’s community manager also shared data indicating that the players’ skill levels across both Windows 10 and Xbox Live were relatively even. However, they deemed the apparent slight disparity too wide to warrant bringing cross-play to the more competitive modes.

Microsoft originally tested this platform-bridging functionality over a weekend in early December, where they noted improved engagement statistics compared to the prior weekend of play. The post read:

The quality of matches improved for both Xbox and Windows 10 users – social lobbies had a higher average user count, and players completed 95 percent of all social matches entered vs 90 percent prior to Cross-play Weekend.

During the test, Windows 10 players only accounted for 9 percent of the cross-play population.

For a closer look at Microsoft’s new multiplayer update for Gears 4, you can check out their blog post here.