Borderlands 3 crossplay is live, but PlayStation owners get left out in the cold

Borderlands 3 crossplay update — (Image credit: Gearbox)

In May, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford revealed that crossplay was coming to Borderlands 3. An update released today has made it happen, meaning that players on PC, Xbox, Mac, and Stadia can now team up for all the shooting and looting their hearts desire.

To get in on the action, you'll need to create a Crossplay Display name, which you'll be prompted to do after the update is installed, even if you don't enable crossplay. (It's optional.) Your chosen handle must be 3-16 characters long, start with a letter and contain only a-z, A-Z, 0-9, or non-consecutive underscore, hyphen, or period/full-stop characters, and has to be unique—so you might want to get rolling on the process if you don't want a string of random numbers at the end of your name.

You may have noticed that the PlayStation is absent from the list of supported platforms. We explained the exclusion in May, but the crash-course version is that Sony demands a piece of the action—that is, money—from any successful crossplay game that it allows on its platform. Borderlands publisher 2K apparently didn't feel like paying, and so that's that: Unless and until one side or the other relents, which seems unlikely, PlayStation players won't be able to connect with their non-PS pals.

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Today's update also kicks off Revengence of Revenge of the Cartels, identical to the 2020 Revenge of the Cartels event, that pits players against Joey Ultraviolent and his gang of neon flunkies. Complete challenges to earn themed cosmetic rewards including the Cosmic Ring ECHO Device skin, the Pandora Sunset weapon trinket, and my favorite (based solely on the name), the Framed Tenderizer room decoration.

Themed seasonal events have also been made "endless," meaning you can jump in and play them whenever you like, for as long as you like, and the level cap has been boosted to 72, opening the door to a total of 70 skill points to play around with. Full details on the update are available at borderlands.com.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.