Ghost Recon Wildlands, the open-world tactical shooter, sparked considerable interest amongst players regarding crossplay functionality. The short answer is: no, Ghost Recon Wildlands does not support crossplay. This means players on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC cannot play together. This was a significant limitation at the time of its release and remains so today.
Why No Crossplay in Ghost Recon Wildlands?
The absence of crossplay in Ghost Recon Wildlands stemmed from several factors, common challenges faced by developers during the game's development cycle:
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Technical Challenges: Integrating different platforms (PC, PlayStation, Xbox) requires extensive technical work to ensure compatibility and stability. Different hardware capabilities, input methods, and network architectures present significant hurdles. The game's engine and architecture may not have been initially designed with crossplay in mind, making retroactive implementation difficult and potentially costly.
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Development Timeline & Resources: Adding crossplay after the initial release requires substantial time and resources, pulling developers away from other priorities like bug fixes, DLC content, or even future game development. Prioritizing crossplay might have meant delaying other updates or features.
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Balancing Gameplay: Ensuring fair gameplay across different platforms presents a challenge. PC players, for instance, often have a distinct advantage due to superior precision with mouse and keyboard controls compared to console controllers. Balancing this disparity to provide a fair experience for all players is complex.
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Ubiquitous Network Infrastructure: Crossplay necessitates robust and scalable network infrastructure to handle the increased number of concurrent players and the communication between different platforms. Setting up and maintaining such an infrastructure can be a considerable undertaking.
The Impact of No Crossplay
The lack of crossplay significantly impacted the Ghost Recon Wildlands community. Players were limited in who they could play with, potentially reducing the size of their player pool and limiting opportunities for cooperative gameplay. Friends owning different consoles were unable to experience the game's cooperative mode together, impacting the social aspect of the game.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint: A Different Story
It's important to note that the sequel, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, does offer crossplay functionality. This demonstrates that Ubisoft has addressed the technical and logistical challenges that prevented crossplay in Wildlands. The lessons learned and advancements in technology likely played a crucial role in enabling this feature in the later title.
The Future of Crossplay
The gaming landscape has seen a significant shift toward crossplay, with many modern titles embracing this feature. While Ghost Recon Wildlands missed out on this opportunity, its absence underscores the complexities involved in integrating crossplay into existing game architectures. The success of crossplay in subsequent titles like Ghost Recon Breakpoint highlights the industry's progress in tackling these challenges. It’s likely that future Ubisoft titles will continue to include crossplay as a standard feature.
