WB Games Montreal is wrapping up its last-minute marketing as Gotham Knights prepares to launch on Friday, October 21. Trailers with gameplay and cinematics echo how unique each Bat Family protagonist is in Gotham Knights, as well as how eerie and enigmatic the Court of Owls is. Cooperative gameplay is a massive draw to Gotham Knights and while there had only previously been two-player co-op as part of the base game, a post-launch update will add a four-player mode. This would be purely fantastic news, if not for the fact that Gotham Knights does not have cross-play.
Unfortunately, the excitement that WB Games Montreal worked hard to establish in its community seems to have been quickly diluted by a couple of discoveries about the game. One such discovery is the confirmation that the game’s performance on consoles will be stunted in comparison to its performance on PC, reiterating that Gotham Knights’ PC port may be the definitive way to play. But the one feature that is not being discussed as much in Gotham Knights’ community is cross-play, which will be sorely missed as an omission from two-player and four-player co-op.
Gotham Knights’ Lack of Cross-Play Was Always a Shame
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Gotham Knights caused quite a stir when it revealed it was omitting its previous-gen console editions. Leaving the game exclusive to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, fans who do not yet own a current-gen console were obviously disappointed. However, at some point in this console generation, cross-gen accessibility will eventually dwindle and games will no longer be developed for previous-gen hardware in an effort to move forward. This is inevitable, and once fans all have access to current-gen hardware, cross-gen will no longer be an issue.
Cross-play is another matter entirely. Many current games support cross-play in online multiplayer in order to open a game’s player pool further. If a game does not have cross-play, like Gotham Knights, then fans will only be able to play in online co-op with someone playing on the same console. Therefore, if there are fewer players on PS5 than there are on PC, those players will be missing out on potential co-op partners.
In terms of Gotham Knights’ co-op in the main campaign, cross-play is not the biggest concern because players can only partner up with one other player anyhow. Rather, in order to achieve an untethered two-player co-op on consoles, Gotham Knights will be capped at 30 FPS with no performance mode.
Gotham Knights’ Player Pool for Heroic Assault Will Be Worse Without Cross-Play
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Following the reveal that Gotham Knights will have a four-player co-op mode called Heroic Assault, the game’s lack of cross-play has become a tragic reality. Because the game is now set to include four-player co-op in a separate mode, the experience will undoubtedly be stifled if players are restricted to online queues on their platform of choice.
This does not mean that it will be impossible for fans to find full four-player queues. But it does mean that if fans have friends who they would like to partner up with in Heroic Assault, let alone Gotham Knights’ open-world narrative, they will need to be playing on the same platform.
Some fans may have purchased the game on particular platforms to achieve this, but there will surely be many fans who are now stranded on one platform while friends of theirs play together on another. That is why cross-play is so important in modern AAA games, and Gotham Knights will hopefully have plans to debut a cross-play patch in time for Heroic Assault.
Gotham Knights is scheduled to release on October 21, 2022, for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.