It’s not just children who love to play at being wizards and elves, dreaming they are off fighting scary monsters. You probably think only children love playing this type of game but adults love playing , too. We certainly do!

Half a century after its release, Dungeons and Dragons is so much more than just a tabletop game about a magical world. There are now computer games and even a recent film. Some people have even written books that take place there. A popular game is Neverwinter. This is an MMORPG that players can only play online. Lots of games today have extortionate price tags. Neverwinter is a free game which makes it one of the most popular with thrifty players. With so many players (28000 a day at last count!), you might think you could play cross platform. But can you?

Key Takeaways

• Cross-Platform Play: Not available in Neverwinter.
• Setting: Based on the Forgotten Realms by Ed Greenwood.
• Development: Revived by Cryptic Studios for online play post-1997.
• Console Family Cross-Play: Supported between generations (e.g., PS4/PS5).
• Cross-Platform Challenges: Due to server differences, controller diversity, and security issues.
• Community Hope: Players look forward to potential future cross-play capabilities.

The Forgotten Realms and Neverwinter

Most avid games are already familiar with Neverwinter. However, what most players don’t know is that it wasn’t made up by a bunch of games designers. It was actually the work of a small boy! Crazy, no?! Like lots of children, Ed Greenwood loved writing stories about faraway made-up places, with monsters and heroes. One of these places was the Forgotten Realms and Neverwinter. Years later, Ed was wracking his brains for a new setting for his favourite game, Dungeons and Dragons. What better place to use than his childhood imaginary world of Forgotten Realms, along with all the mythical things that lived there?

In Neverwinter, you can have battles with lots of different types of beings and monsters. You can even just explore the world around you as your character if you are too scared to do any fighting!

Neverwinter is one of the important locations in the original Dungeons and Dragons world, and there have been two games about Neverwinter. The first was an online game that was called Neverwinter Nights; this was an online role-playing game only available on AOL.  It was the first game within the Dungeons and Dragons universe to use graphics and was first released all the way back 1991.

In 1997, the AOL game was taken offline. Like so many games before it, many thought it had gone to the gaming graveyard for good, never to be seen again. Lots of players missed playing in the Neverwinter world and kept demanding a new game with little success. After waiting what seemed like forever, Cryptic Studios finally announced that they were in the process of developing a new game set in Neverwinter, which had fans cheering around the world. It would take two long years before the game would finally be ready for release. In the new Neverwinter game,  players could go on quests and adventures with people a thousand miles away, something unheard of a few years before. It’s still pretty crazy when you stop and think about it! With good graphics and engaging storylines, the game was worth the wait! With almost 3 million players since then, you definitely agree with us.

Is Neverwinter Cross Platform?

No. The most popular way to play Neverwinter is on PC as it was originally made for computers. However, you can now also play it if you own an Xbox or PlayStation 4 or 5.

The online gaming market is a big one. New games are constantly being developed and released. Neverwinter has had several updates (known as modules) since then. These have added new storylines and elements for players to enjoy. Even on the newer version, it is still not possible to play Neverwinter with people playing on other platforms.

What About Between Consoles?

Although Cryptic is yet to unveil plans to allow cross-platform playing, you can play with newer models of the same console because each console has its own server. Therefore, if you are playing on a PS4 you can form a quest with your friend playing on PS5.  This is also because they have same types of controllers and gameplay. This makes it easier to incorporate updated consoles of the same type.  This should carry on being the case.

Why Isn’t it Cross-Platform?

Currently, players can’t play Neverwinter cross platform. But why is this ?! We just don’t know! Cryptic have never told us. It could be difficult for different consoles to play with each other as they use completely different controllers and different controllers give different styles of play, which can make them difficult to mix.  This might make developers nervous about cross platform play as it may put console players off playing their game if they are always playing against ‘better’ players.

Another reason Neverwinter doesn’t might not have cross platform play is that each platform might be on its own server. Linking platforms can be very complicated and expensive for developers.

Neverwinter might not allow cross platform play because each platform might be on its own server. Linking platforms can be very complicated and expensive for developers. Another reason it may not be cross platform is online safety. As so many players are playing online at the same time, privacy settings are very important. Keeping players safe can be more difficult when multiple consoles are playing together.

Despite its popularity around the world, Neverwinter doesn’t support cross platform play, with no plans to make it so. Gamers around the world (including us!) all hope this changes in the future. Maybe with advances in technology and security it will be. Until then, we will just have to enjoy Neverwinter as it is.