In the same way that we have seen previously with Nintendo and Xbox, this time Epic Games has launched a new tool to try to build a bridge between its platform and Steam and facilitate cross-play between the titles of both platforms, with theto the presentation of the so-called «Crossplay for PC».
While this new tool is primarily intended for developers, it is certainly great news for gamers. According to what they say from Epic Games, the platform contains a set of tools that allows developers quickly and effortlessly implement cross-play services in any title, thanks to the SDK (Software Development Kit) ready to implement or plug-and-play. And just as each set of Epic Online Services tools is autonomous, so will the development of these tools for cross-play.
In terms of the changes that this would bring to the players, essentially it would be about creating an overlay menu in which the friend lists of both stores would be mergedallowing us to search, send and receive friend requests and join multiplayer games in the two stores.
In this way, it would also be possible to create a completely non-gaming tool, so no special installation or update would be required for each game. In addition, according to what they point out from Epic Games, the synchronization of our accounts would be done in a really simple way, without requiring emails or password requestswith an operation that will only require a few clicks.
Thus, although for the moment the company has only pointed out the usefulness of this cross-play tool with Steam, it would not be surprising if we see an extension of this tool to other platforms in the futurenot just with other PC entrants like GOG, Origin, or EA Play, but even with consoles from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo.
