Terraria devs plan to tackle crossplay after next update
Terraria multiplayer will be playable across PC, consoles, and mobile if Re-Logic is successful.
Terraria's developers are currently working on the Labor of Love update, which Re-Logic head of business strategy Ted Murphy described to me as a necessary bit of unfinished business for the team before moving on to its next game. But that doesn't mean Re-Logic's going to be totally finished with Terraria after Labor of Love. Murphy told me that after Labor of Love ships, Re-Logic has plans for another major addition: crossplay.
"We really want to take a shot at crossplay for PC-console-mobile," Murphy said. "Our mobile and console team has been able to develop nearly in parallel with us on PC during Labor of Love—so this work might start sooner than later. An exciting hill to climb to be sure, but one we are eager to attempt."
"Attempt" doesn't make crossplay sound like a definitive part of Terraria's future—Murphy clearly doesn't want to promise the feature if something (or one of the platform holders) ends up standing in its way. Terraria is on a lot of platforms, including iOS, Android, Stadia, Switch, PS4, and Xbox One, with backwards compatibility for those last two versions making it playable on the latest generation console. But hopefully Re-Logic can pull off making them all play nicely with each other.
Meanwhile, I'll be pouring one out for the poor Nintendo 3DS and Windows Phone ports of Terraria, which both reached end of life in 2016. Gone, but not forgotten.
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Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.
When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).