The Ascent – Does it Support Crossplay?

The modern era of gaming may be oversaturated with games as a service titles, but it hasn’t been all bad. The emergence of crossplatform play, commonly referred to as crossplay, is one of the biggest innovations for the gaming industry in recent years. The once rigid barriers separating platform ecosystems have started to come down, allowing more players than ever to come together in cooperative and competitive modes.

The Ascent is a 4-player co-op action-RPG that sits as a prime candidate for crossplay. As a game released only on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S, there aren’t an abundance of obstacles to overcome to bridge the gap between players. Or so you would think. The answer regarding crossplay in The Ascent isn’t as straightforward as you might have hoped.

Let’s break down what we know about crossplay in Neon Giant’s cyberpunk ARPG.

Does The Ascent Support Crossplay?

Yes, The Ascent does support crossplay between PC and Xbox, but there are still barriers that require highlighting. Copies of the game purchased on PC via the Windows Store will face no issues when attempting to join games with those playing on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.

However, the same cannot be said for purchases of The Ascent made through Steam, Valve’s ever-popular digital distribution platform. A developer under the name Curve Tom posted on the Steam discussion forums in response to a crossplay question stating that “there is no cross-play between Steam and the Xbox platforms.”

It’s an odd exclusion given that Microsoft titles being on Steam haven’t immediately ruled out crossplay between all platforms in the past. Gears 5 comes to mind as a prime example. Whether or not Neon Giant plans on altering this restrictive setup in the future is unknown. For now, Steam users are barred from playing with those in the official Xbox ecosystem.

Check out the rest of our coverage on The Ascent here.