Killer Instinct is Currently Testing Cross-Play on Steam

For those that enjoy the fighting title Killer Instinct, there's some good news! Cross-play has been a hot topic for awhile now, with Xbox seemingly at the helm of wanting to keep the idea in the limelight. "Xboss" Phil Spencer has already put out the call to arms, so to speak, to Valve and Nintendo - but Sony seems a lot less enthused about the idea. Good news is, the idea is gaining traction and a new post from the Killer Instinct team points at that exact cross-play happening very soon.

The original message showing that cross-play is indeed coming to the fighter came straight from the Killer Instinct blog with the below message:

"Hey Killer Instinct family, we hope you're just as excited for the 3.9 release as we are!

When you download the latest Killer Instinct Content Update, if you haven't done so already, you'll undoubtedly notice something peculiar, so we wanted to give you a heads up at what's to come before you spotted it in the wild.

Tucked away in this CU is a switch that will enable certain feature you've all been clamoring for, and that feature is indeed cross-play!

Yes, this is your confirmation that Killer Instinct players on Xbox One or Windows 10 will be able to play cross-network with players on Steam, as well, and we're super excited to be able to bring that feature to you when KI launches on Steam in the coming weeks.

There is one small caveat, though. We will be testing this feature, making sure all the kinks are worked out (as best as we can) in a live environment. What that means for you is that you will see the option for cross play in your menus, but then there will be times where that menu item is turned off, and seemingly missing. Never fear, that is simply us working on things in the background, and your experience will not be affected as we do our work.

This feature being turned on/off will have 0 impact on your ability to play KI in-network, or between Xbox & Windows 10 players. So please, play to your heart's content while we do the dirty work in the background.

Take this as your official announcement that KI will indeed feature cross play. Of course, there are still a lot more features around the KI Steam offering to go over, so keep your eye on ultra-combo.com18 for more information as we get closer to launch.

Any questions? Feel free to drop them here, and we will do what we can to answer! That's all for now. See you in the virtual arena."

For a game like Killer Instinct, this move makes sense. It's a fighter, so the keyboard and mouse use doesn't really mean anything when pitted against gamepad users. Given that's it's Microsoft, the Steam x Windows 10 x Xbox One pairing also is a given.

It's not groundbreaking, but it is a step in the right direction. In the past, Sony has mentioned that they aren't interested in the idea of cross-play, with the other major players heading opposing platforms taking a different approach. It'll be interesting to see what this means for future titles, depending on the overall reception.

Killer Instinct first released in November of 2013 and is currently available on Xbox One and Windows.

(via Reddit)