Outriders Crossplay Fix and How to Play Across PS5, PS4, Xbox, PC, and Stadia

Outriders is Square Enix’s latest attempt at a looter game after the release of Marvel’s Avengers last year. However you may feel about the publisher’s first Marvel outing in terms of the story, gameplay, and looting system, it has to be said that Outriders is at the very least not lacking in personality. Coming from People Can Fly, the studio behind the criminally underrated shooter Bulletstorm, Outriders certainly has plenty of character, and a grittier tone that is sure to please players looking for something a bit darker than what Destiny has to offer to the genre.

Unfortunately, the game’s launch has been anything but smooth. No, we’re not expecting a Cyberpunk 2077-level catastrophe, but server issues and a few bugs have stifled what Square Enix hoped would be a flawless for the game. Server issues are to be expected with online multiplayer games, of course, and especially par for the course at a time when studios are still working remotely. There are just always going to be hiccups.

We’ve already covered the extent of the current server issues facing players as well as the possible fixes Square Enix has suggested. You can check all of that out here.

But server issues are also affecting crossplay functionality, which (in theory) should allow players across Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PC, and Google Stadia to connect and play the game together. Here’s what we know know far as well as what Square Enix is doing about these issues:

Outriders Crossplay Fix

Square Enix is aware of the crossplay connectivity issue between PC and consoles as well as issues with crossplay on Stadia. In fact, crossplay doesn’t seem to be working at all on the latter platform.

First, here are the known issues on PC and consoles:

• In preparing the Day 1 builds for PC and Consoles, we discovered a desynchronization between the PC and Console code. This results in a backend mismatch which causes players to be kicked out of a multiplayer game that includes both Console and PC players.
• We are treating this issue with the highest priority and we are working on patches that will synchronize all platform code, which will resolve these issues.
• Steam & Epic can successfully play together.
• PlayStation and Xbox players can successfully play together.

Square Enix has already outlined some “workarounds” it has put in place at launch. Unfortunately, console and PC players will have to wait to play the game together until further notice. Per the publisher’s official Reddit thread on known issues:

• We have temporarily turned off automatic matchmaking between PC and Consoles. Steam & Epic players can still Crossplay together, either by invite or via matchmaking.
• Should you invite a Console player into your PC game via an invite code (or vice versa), the game will initially connect, but one player will eventually be kicked out of the game. We highly recommend against doing this until we have patched all versions of the game.

As for Stadia, Square Enix is aware of the issues and is looking into fixes. But Stadia owners may be out of luck for the time being…

• We are aware that crossplay may not be working as intended on Stadia.
• We are investigating the matter and hope to provide news soon.

Ultimately, it sounds like Square and People Can Fly are working on fixes for these crossplay issues but you might have to wait until after launch weekend for the feature to function properly. We’ll keep you updates as we hear more on that.

How Outriders Crossplay Works

Once crossplay functionality is finally fully up and running, it’s actually pretty easy to connect with players on other platforms. Just follow these steps:

1. Crossplay is disabled by default so the first thing you need to do is to activate it. In the Lobby screen, click on “Play with Friends” and then go to “Options.”
2. Once in Options, switch to the Gameplay tab and scroll down to “Enable Crossplay” and switch it to “on.”
3. Once crossplay is enabled, go back to the Play with Friends menu. In order to invite friends on other platforms to your game, you’ll need provide them with a game code that they’ll use to join your game. You should see “Crossplay Game Codes” on the Play with Friends menu now.
4. If you want a friend to join your session, click on “Generate a Game Code” and send it to your friend. If you want to join someone else’s session, you’ll need to input a code from that player by clicking the “Join a Game Using Code” button.

And that’s it!

If you’re playing between a PS4 and a PS5 or an Xbox One and Xbox Series X, you can just invite each other from your friends lists like usual, though. Crossplay between Xbox and PlayStation platforms does require the above steps.

You won’t be able to start playing with friends as soon as you jump into Outriders, though. You’ll need to complete about an hour of the game and reach Rift Town before you can invite and join friends in the game.

We’ll keep you updated as we learn more about Outriders.