Valheim Update Adds Crossplay

In case you somehow missed it, Xbox Game Pass for PC — PC Game Pass — is set to add the popular Viking survival video game Valheim to the subscription service starting tomorrow, September 29th. The Early Access video game will also appear on the Microsoft Store at that point. Ahead of that, developer Iron Gate Studio has released a new update for Valheim that officially adds crossplay support.

“Our friends at Piktiv have worked hard to make sure the game looks and feels the same regardless of what platform you’re using, but the patch does entail a minor change to the GUI in the starting menu in order to make other people’s worlds as smooth as possible,” the preamble to the patch notes for the official update reads in part. “If you’re playing as a Steam player with other Steam players, it will work just the same as before (with the addition of now being able to mark a server as favourite). If one or more players are playing from a different platform, there will instead be a join code that you can use in order to enter the game.”

The #Valheim crossplay patch is now live on Steam! Once the game is available with PC Game Pass, you’ll all be able to play together right away – regardless of platform! https://t.co/uRayNn3Oc6

— Valheim (@Valheimgame) September 27, 2022

You can check out the full patch notes for Valheim Patch 0.211.7, straight from the source, below:

• Crossplay support added
• ‘Manage saves’ GUI added so that it’s easier for players to restore/remove saves & backups
• Minor network optimization for in-game hosting (Less demanding for the host when other players are in the game at the same time)
• ‘Join Game’ tab has been updated. Players can now add favourite servers, and see if a server is running, and if they support crossplay or not.**
• Players can now use the parameter ‘-crossplay’ while running Dedicated servers to support crossplay. When using this parameter, the backend will be running Playfab instead of Steamworks. (A ‘Join code’ will appear when you join a Dedicated server supporting crossplay. Players can use this code to join the server. This Join code is regenerated whenever the server is restarted.)
• A new branch, “default_old”, has been added, where you can play on the previous Steam version of the game in case your server hasn’t been updated yet (Steam might need a restart for the branch to show up)

**A question mark indicates that a server status is uncertain, while a red X indicates that the server is down. If there is a “shuffle” icon next to the server status, that means the server supports crossplay.

As noted above, Valheim Patch 0.211.7 is currently live. More broadly, Valheim is currently available in Early Access on PC via Steam for $19.99 and is set to launch for the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox One in 2023. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the popular Viking PC video game right here.

What do you think of the latest improvement to Valheim? Are you looking forward to seeing the new influx of players once Valheim is on Xbox Game Pass for PC? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop in order to talk about all things gaming!