PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) players on the PlayStation 4 (PS4) and Xbox One will soon be able to compete against each other with the game’s upcoming Season 4 update. The update was announced by Microsoft during its Xbox Inside keynote at Gamescom 2019.
The game’s creator, the PUBG Corp, also announced that cross-play will be first available on its test servers in late September, while the regular PUBG servers are expected the get the update in early October. However, it should be noted that the cross-play feature will only be limited between console. Meaning that PS4 and Xbox One players won’t be pitted against their PC brethren.
Additionally, they are looking forward to 100 players in a server from both console communities to play with each other in the same match and improve matchmaking times, which is expected to be shorter as there will be a wider matchmaking pool.
Beyond cross-play, Season 4 will also introduce Survivor Pass 4: Aftermath, which will allow players to unlock over 100 Erangel-themed rewards as they level up. Not only that, but the season pass will also introduce cooperative missions that requires players to work together to achieve milestones.
From the Xbox news announcement, PUBG is also announcing Season 4, bringing visual enhancement to Erangel maps with new building styles and more realistic terrain and scenery. as well as weapon and vehicle rebalancing across the map.
Cross-play between the two rival consoles isn’t groundbreaking news, but it is rare to see Sony playing nice so willingly. Prior to PUBG, the Japanese console maker was initially reluctant to allow any form of cross-play between its players and its rival Xbox on another battle royale title, Fortnite. Ultimately, the company relented and eventually allowed its players to mingle with Xbox players near the end of 2018.
The update will first roll out to the PC first on 27 August, while the console counterpart will have their update within 2 weeks after the initial update on PC.
