Is South Park: Snow Day crossplay? Your multiplayer options explained
Are all consoles in the blizzard together?
South Park: Snow Day releases today, as we're sure you're aware if you're a gamer who loves Matt Stone and Trey Parker's satirical cartoon. It's the follow up to the Stick of Truth and the Fractured but Whole (and the lesser well known Phone Destroyer mobile game).
This time, it has a more 3D art style, unlike the classic 2D of the TV show, and the RPG elements are abandoned for action. But there are still a lot of laughs to be had, and it releases on PC, Xbox, PS5 and - surprisingly - the Switch.
One of the selling points of South Park: Snow Day it its co-op nature. There's still the option to play solo with bots, but the idea is to join friends online and take part in the matchmaking.
But can we play alongside friends using other hardware? Let's take a look at the multiplayer options for South Park: Snow Day.
Is South Park: Snow Day crossplay?
Sadly, as far as we can tell, South Park: Snow Day does not have crossplay. This means you shouldn't expect to link up with players on other systems.
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We've just booted up the game for the first time, and once you're through the elf-bashing tutorial, you unlock the online component of South Park: Snow Day.
However, even once we'd reached this multiplayer point in the game, we couldn't see any toggle to turn crossplay on or off. The lack of such an option makes it seem fairly clear that cross-platform play is not supported here.
Usually, if a game did support crossplay, you'd have an option in the settings to turn that level of connectivity on or off. Not everyone on PC would want to play with console people, and vice versa, so you'd normally expect to see a toggle in a crossplay game. South Park: Snow Day does not have one.
Adding credence to this, Shack News attended a preview event and asked the actual developers about crossplay. Their preview article states in no uncertain terms: "Crossplay is unfortunately unavailable, as confirmed by a developer on site."
In the matchmaking menu in the final game, when we were playing on PC, the only friends we could seem to invite were other people on Steam. So it seems like people with have to stick with the chums they've got on the same platform as them, whether that be PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S or Nintendo Switch.
With the game not being available on the older PS4 or Xbox One consoles, there's no chance of cross-generational play being a thing here either. We'll let you know if any of this changes with updates later on.
How does multiplayer work in South Park: Snow Day?
Choosing to play alongside friends is easy. The only bit of the game that you need to do alone is the tutorial.
Once you're in the Kupa Keep hub area, head to Cartman's back yard and interact with the War Table. It's the big round wooden table in the middle of the area.
Here, you'll be able to host a game, join a game, or view your friends list. Remember that it's a four-player game, so you'll only be able to play with three other friends.
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Even when you're not at the War Table, you should be able to find the matchmaking screen through the game's menus. Just pick the option that best suits what you want to do, and you should be enjoying some multiplayer action soon.
We found it very easy to jump into games with other players, and a little bit more fun than going it alone. But if you're more of a solo person, the game will provide AI bots to help you out when needed.
With South Park being all about friendship, and the game being all about kids playing together and battling it out in the snow, we'd say that multiplayer is probably the better option this time out. But whichever way you choose to play, have fun!
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