Even with EA FC 26 now out in the wild, Rematch remains a real breath of fresh air. Sure, the ball-hogging antics of some of your teammates may leave you just as enraged as a last-minute defeat on Ultimate Team, but its slicker, snappier matches and focus on nailing core mechanics is a welcome break from grinding for packs and meta players. Rematch Season 1 has just arrived, and it finally rolls out the one feature I (and many others) have been waiting for: crossplay.
It still befuddles me that, in the year of our Lord 2025, multiplayer games are still launching without crossplay. In some cases, full crossplay between PC and consoles presents some balance and integrity problems, and I appreciate that. But in the case of games like Elden Ring Nightreign and Rematch, the lack of cross-platform support can be super frustrating. It can also be problematic for struggling or smaller games with lower player counts, as matchmaking can take a real hit.
Initially intended to release a few weeks back in Patch 3, Rematch crossplay support was then delayed after some major bugs were identified at the last minute. Last week, crossplay was finally implemented on Rematch’s beta build, and now, with Season 1’s launch, it’s available to all players, three months on from the game’s initial release date. Crossplay extends across all platforms, meaning those playing on Steam can now compete with and against those on Xbox and Playstation.
Further online improvements come in the form of a new technology called Network Next, “which aims to reduce latency for players with high ping within their own region,” according to Sloclap. It’ll be tested on those using the Sao Paulo server first, before it’s more widely rolled out later down the line.
Elsewhere in Season 1, one of the game’s most widely abused mechanical exploits has been addressed. Dubbed the ‘Ippy Slide,’ it sees players knock the ball in one direction, quickly move their player in another, only for the ball to then magnetize back to the player’s foot. The move hasn’t been completely patched out, but Sloclap has instead tuned things to stop it being quite so potent. The animations will be performed more slowly, and the distance at which you can perform an Ippy Slide has been reduced.
Rematch Season 1 and crossplay is live right now for all players. There are loads of other balance changes, bug fixes, and quality of life tweaks over in the official patch notes if you want to check out every last detail.
If you’re a fan of some of the best sports games, even if they’re not soccer-related, I definitely encourage you to give Rematch a go. It’s one of the best Game Pass games too, by the way, so if you’re already subbed, then it’ll be sitting waiting for you in your library.
Also be sure to head over to our community Discord server, where you can reminisce, rant, and rave about some of your favorite multiplayer games from the past and the present.