Need for Speed Heat is the first EA game to get crossplay

Need for Speed fans got some good news today on multiple fronts. The first, and perhaps most important, bit of news is that Need for Speed Heat is getting cross-platform multiplayer. Not only is this the first Need for Speed game to feature crossplay, but it's the first game from Electronic Arts to feature it as well.

Crossplay is included in an update that's going live tomorrow, and once that update has been applied, you'll be able to race players across PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. You'll need to opt-in to crossplay before you can actually use it, but assuming you and your friends do, you'll be able to find each other in the Find Players menu regardless of the platform you're all playing on.

It's important to note that crossplay in Need for Speed Heat will work on PC across Steam, Origin, and EA Access subscribers (the game arrives on EA Access and Origin Access on June 16th), so you don't even have to be playing on Origin to take advantage of it. You can read the full patch notes for tomorrow's update over on the EA forums, complete with a number of bug fixes.

This will be the last update that Need for Speed Heat will receive, as developer Criterion is presumably looking to shift its attention to future Need for Speed games. In a blog post today, the company says that we'll get more "Need for Speed and Steam announcements" during EA Play Live on June 18th. It's safe to assume that not only will we see a new Need for Speed game announced, but EA will also announce the next batch of PC games heading to Steam.

So, it's an exciting day for Need for Speed fans – assuming, of course, that those Need for Speed fans enjoy Need for Speed Heat. We'll let you know what Criterion and EA announce on June 18th, so stay tuned for more.