Cross-platform play coming to Paladins, Realm Royale and Smite
Hurray for cross-play
Two weeks ago, I was sat in a dive bar so scuzzy it was practically underwater. It was there my friend told me he spent nearly all his time playing Paladins on his Xbox, and I learnt two things. 1) Paladins must be bigger than I thought, and 2) platform restrictions can make me sad.
Today, in the opening announco-blast of Atlanta's Hi-Rez Expo, Hi-Rez announced that cross-platform play is coming to Paladins, Realm Royale and Smite.
Cross-play will be added to Paladins at the start of Season 2, which confusingly seems to be the name of both the current competitive period and an upcoming new phase of updates. That will kick off in January with the 2.01 update, planned for January 16th. Players on Switch, Xbox and PC will all be able to party together.
For Realm Royale, cross-play will come at some point during the closed Xbox One beta. That's running now, though it's unclear exactly when cross-play will arrive. Hi-Rez say they plan to expand the console beta to PS4 soon, though this press release only mentions adding cross-play between PC and Xbox.
The date for Smite cross-play doesn't get more specific than "soon", when PC players will be able to join those on Xbox One and Switch. Oh yeah: Smite has also been announced for Switch. The closed beta for that starts on January 24th.
To celebrate, you can nab a free "Starter Pack" for Paladins if you log in before December 15th, which includes the four latest Champions, plus a skin and voice pack for each of 'em.
I'm actually in Atlanta right now, writing this post in front of four adjacent wall-screens showing the Paladins and Smite world championships. It's a messy set up, which I'll tell you more about after the digital dust has settled.
Keep your eyes peeled for more Smite and Paladins announcements, too. I'll be newsing those once I've had a chance to grill the people responsible.