As we move closer to the next generation of consoles, crossplay (also known as cross-platform play) is becoming an ever more essential feature for online multiplayer gaming. It allows gamers to come together and play online multiplayer regardless of the platform, providing solidarity to communities as it avoids ringfencing players around their individual platforms.
It is a particularly welcome addition to games that have a smaller fan base. Racing games, in particular, don’t have anywhere near the popularity of the shooting games, for example, and rely on small, dedicated player bases to ensure the future of their online communities. This is where crossplay can have a hugely positive impact on a game and maintain an online community for years to come.
Codemasters racing games in the past have not been able to offer crossplay as the trend for offering it crossplay to games has become a very recent trend.
Unfortunately, F1 2020 does not contain any form of crossplay. There is no in-game social system that would otherwise be able to accommodate the crossplay feature to allow friends to play together on separate systems. This means that if you want to play with friends, you will need to own a copy of the game and the same platform as them. It could be something added later, but Codemasters are yet to mention any plans to implement it into the game.
There are also no current plans for a new generation version of the game, meaning that cross-generational crossplay is also not a possibility, though this might change as we get closer to the release of the new consoles.
