To expedite updates to the PC experience, we will sometimes deploy patches to PC at a different cadence than we do on consoles. As a result, crossplay between PC players and console players will be temporarily disabled when that occurs. This will have no impact on console players attempting cross-platform play with other console players, nor on PC-to-PC multiplayer, and will be resolved once the console patch lines up with Steam and Epic again.
During these times, saves made on PC platforms will not be available on consoles, even if the 2K Account is linked to both platforms, and vice versa.
For those playing on Steam who are more interested in staying connected with your fellow Civ fans across the river on console platforms, then we have Patch 1.0.1 made available on a separate branch for players to opt-into. This will enable Steam users to play with console players via crossplay.
Please note that by opting-in you will be playing an older version of the game that does not include the latest PC updates, and is not compatible with saves made on the current version of the game.
Currently, existing saves and in-progress games won’t be backwards compatible with the console-compatible branch, so you’ll have to start a new campaign when switching over. The saves created while on console-compatibility are forward-compatible with the newest versions. You can use the same process to transition to the most recent version on Steam at any time.
To join the console-compatible branch, right-click Sid Meier's Civilization VII in your Steam library, select Properties, then click over to the Betas tab.
In the dropdown for Beta Participation, you will see "console-compatible" as an option, no beta code required. You may have to restart Steam to get the new branch to appear in the dropdown list.
Once you've selected the console-compatible beta branch, your game will update to be on the correct version of the game that allows cross-play with consoles. The game title will reflect this change.
When you're ready to switch back to the most up-to-date version of Civilization VII on Steam, switch your Beta Participation dropdown to "None," wait for the game to update, and jump back in with all the latest PC updates applied.