Last week, the official Borderlands 3 Twitter account posted an invitation to a new Borderlands 3 livestream event for Tuesday, July 16. The invitation was for an event titled, “Celebration of Togetherness.”
Fans saw the invitation as a teaser for cross-play in Borderlands 3. Having cross-play would mean that players could enjoy Borderlands 3 with friends, regardless of which platform they owned Borderlands 3 on. Xbox One Borderlands 3 owners could play together with PS4 or PC players, and vice versa.
We hope to see you there. #Borderlands3 pic.twitter.com/JxDfmkSwcM
— Borderlands 3 (@Borderlands) July 12, 2019
Pitchford addressed those rumors today by denying cross-play will be revealed tomorrow. “Some folks may be speculating that this thing tomorrow may be about cross play. Tomorrow’s thing is awesome but *not* about cross-play,” Pitchford wrote.
Instead, Pitchford says that Gearbox is committed to bringing cross-play to Borderlands 3 as soon as possible, but only after launch. Pitchford added a second tweet confirming that Borderlands 3 won’t have cross-play at launch.
To be clear, there will not be any cross-play functionality in Borderlands 3 at launch as we work closely with our partners to create a positive cross-play experience as soon as practicable. We are committed to cross-play on as many platforms as possible.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) July 15, 2019
Cross-play is a popular new feature for online video games. Big titles like Fortnite, Minecraft, and Rocket League support cross-play already, but it wasn’t easy. For a long time Sony blocked cross-play for big games over safety concerns.
Sony began relaxing restrictions on cross-play for certain titles, but some developers like Hi-Rez claim that their games still have difficulty being approved by Sony for cross-play.
Borderlands 3 will be released on September 13, 2019 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC as an Epic Games Store exclusive. The long-awaited third game in the Borderlands franchise will take Vault Hunters to more planets, but everything else we loved about the series – the loot, shooting, and humor – is as we remember, At least based on our hands-on Borderlands 3 preview.
Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN. You can reach him on Twitter.
