Versus play now available in one of the game’s playlists

Gears of War 4 players on Xbox One and Windows 10 can now play each other in versus mode, Microsoft and developer The Coalition announced today. Competitive cross-platform play is now available in the game’s Social Quickplay playlist.

The addition of Xbox One vs. Windows 10 cross-play is “planned to be a permanent move for the future of Social Quickplay, with the first few months being a ‘trial period’ in order to monitor player feedback,” said The Coalition community manager Liam Ashley.

Gears of War 4’s Core and Competitive playlists won’t support cross-platform play, however.

“Despite the closely matched performance between users on both platforms … we always want to ensure our Ranked experiences are as closely matched and competitive as possible,” the developer said.

The Coalition held a cross-platform multiplayer test in Gears of War 4 late last year. Based on data from more than 750,000 matches, the developer concluded that Xbox One vs. Windows 10 cross-play worked well enough to implement it in the game.

Here are some of the stats from that test, via The Coalition:

• Over 115,000 Unique Participants – 91/9 split from Xbox to Windows 10
• Average of 6.2 matches played by Xbox users, with 11.2 for Windows 10 users
• Over 90% of all matches during the weekend included a mix of Windows 10 and Xbox One players
• Windows 10 and Xbox players had closely-matched results when comparing Average KD, Score and Kills per match based on skill ratings
• The quality of matches improved for both Xbox and Windows 10 users – social lobbies had a higher average user count, and players completed 95% of all social matches entered vs 90% prior to Cross-play Weekend

Gears of War 4 is part of Microsoft’s Xbox Play Anywhere program, meaning those who purchase the game on either Xbox One or Windows 10 have access to both versions. Gears of War 4 joins a handful of other games, like Killer Instinct and Rocket League, in supporting cross-platform multiplayer.

Source: Polygon – Xbox One