‘Rocket League’ Coming To Nintendo Switch With PC And Xbox One Cross-Play, But Not PS4

Nintendo announced Rocket League is coming to the Nintendo Switch this year with some extras during an E3 2017 Direct video Tuesday. One of those extras is the cross-play support between the hybrid console, PC via Steam, and the Xbox One. Sony’s PlayStation 4 will be sticking to its own court.

Rocket League will launch on the Nintendo Switch during the holiday 2017 shopping season, per a Nintendo press release and blog post from developer Psyonix. The game will come with all of the same content, features, and updates that have been released on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC thus far. Additionally, it will come with some exclusive Battle-Cars and customization items. Naturally, these items include Mario’s and Luigi’s hats.

The Nintendo Switch version of the soccer-meets-demolition derby game will be playable when docked, played in handheld mode, or in tabletop mode. It does feature local multiplayer for up to four players when docked and multiplayer for up to eight when played online or over local wireless.

Cross-play

The cross-play announcement between the Nintendo Switch, PC, and Xbox One is possibly the most interesting part of the Rocket League announcement. Microsoft began pushing cross-play between all consoles and PC in March 2016, and the developers at Psyonix were on board immediately.

Unfortunately, Sony threw cold water on the idea and continued to obfuscate when asked about it later in 2016, despite the fact it happily allowed cross-play between the PS4 and PC already in Rocket League and other games. This led to a view from many in the gaming community that the console maker saw its huge console lead as a reason not to entertain cross-play with Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE network.

This is actually the second cross-play announcement between the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One thus far. Minecraft on both consoles, plus the Pocket and Windows 10 Editions will receive an update later this summer to bring cross-play between consoles, PC, and mobile devices.

Cross-play support on the Nintendo Switch means players who buy Rocket League for the system will immediately join a large player population. Granted this means there will be many who are already experts at dribbling a ball through the air with a rocket car, but those highly skilled players aren’t around during the lower competitive levels.

What do you think about the Rocket League and cross-play announcement for the Nintendo Switch? Sound off in the comments below.

[Featured Image by Psyonix]