By Reinhard Blaukovitsch, founder and Managing Director of Denuvo by Irdeto
It has become quite common that, on a whim on a Saturday night, with just one video call and a few hours difference away, you and your long-distance friend can reconvene to explore the universe of, say, No Man’s Sky together. Not only that, but you can even do so on completely different platforms. While you fiddle with your mouse and keyboard, your friend ensures their console controller is fully charged and their headset is connected for a long night of digital pilgrimage – smuggling illegal goods, making alien friends, or studying the unique fauna and flora of distant planets. Sounds just about right, doesn’t it?
While cross-platform gaming started gaining traction in the late 2000s and early 2010s, it wasn’t until around 2018 that it truly took off once major console manufacturers like Sony and Microsoft began to support cross-platform play more openly. Thanks to this magic, we are no longer confined to our respective platforms, doomed to solitude if you have a PlayStation and your friend happens to instead have an Xbox. Now, both of you can seamlessly connect in the same virtual universe with your avatars materialized on a vibrant, alien planet, ready to embark on your chosen paths.
Console vs. PC: the battle for fair play?
Defined as the ability for gamers to play with and against each other across different platforms seamlessly, cross-platform play has sparked nothing short of a new era of accessibility and community within the gaming industry. Whether you and your friends are Xbox, PlayStation, or PC gamers, you can all still play together as long as the game you are playing supports cross-platform play. In a sense, it’s not just about playing together; it’s also about progressing together. With the advent of cross-platform progression, players can now carry their in-game accomplishments and advance across multiple platforms, creating a truly unified gaming experience with a long-lasting competitive environment.
However, it would be unrealistic to expect that the perks of cross-platform play come without a cost. There are of course the relatively surface-level technical considerations, such as limited feature integration and the notorious precision advantage of PC players over their console peers, but let’s take it a level deeper and discuss game security.
The open nature of cross-platform play introduces security vulnerabilities and cheating concerns. As a rule, this conversation revolves around console players, who traditionally experience little to zero cheating, yet are confronted with the proliferation of in-game fraud once matched with the PC players.
Even in a recent blog post from January 2025, Activision addressed the Call of Duty community’s concerns about cheating in Black Ops 6 and Warzone, outlining their strategy to combat cheats in 2025. In the near term, with the launch of Season 2, Activision will allow console players to disable cross-platform play, enabling them to compete only against other console players in Black Ops 6 and Warzone Ranked Play. It is widely understood that most cheats occur on the PC platform, and console players have been disabling cross-platform play for regular multiplayer for years. Now, ranked players will also have this option.
This raises the question: why is there such a disparity in what should be a universally enjoyable experience free from cheating?
The high-stakes game of Anti-Cheat technology
The core issue with cheating stems from the profound openness of a Windows PC, which offers users ultimate control. With administrative and hardware access right out of the box, users can do virtually anything on the system—analyzing, modifying, and injecting code into applications. When one threat is mitigated, attackers simply delve one level deeper. This progression is particularly evident in cheating: initially, cheats operated in normal user mode. Once Anti-Cheat (AC) solutions emerged in user mode, cheat developers shifted to kernel mode, and AC adapted accordingly. Now, cheat developers are advancing to hardware-level cheats (DMA cheats), which is where we currently stand.
The real question, though, is where this leads us. Following the CrowdStrike outage, Microsoft announced plans to restrict kernel mode access, a positive step towards enhancing the security of Windows PCs. However, until this measure is implemented, secure activities must be conducted either on online servers or using Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs) (or other hardware security features), which are not yet widely available and have at times been compromised.
While the availability of cheating instantly puts console players on an unequal foot in a cross-platform play, it also presents a tremendous challenge for developers as the prevention and detection of cheating across the devices requires ongoing monitoring, upgrades, and cooperation with platform holders to keep all security flaws under control. With multiple platforms involved, developers must ensure robust security measures to protect player data, prevent hacking, and detect cheating behaviors.
The future of cross-platform gaming: balancing innovation and security
Cross-platform gaming has undeniably revolutionized how players connect, collaborate, and compete. Breaking down the barriers between devices has fostered a more inclusive and dynamic gaming landscape—one where friends can embark on adventures together, regardless of hardware constraints. However, with this expanded accessibility comes the pressing need to ensure fairness and security for all players.
Why it matters
The battle against cheating remains one of the most significant challenges in cross-platform play. While PC gamers enjoy the flexibility of an open system, this very advantage also exposes the platform to vulnerabilities that consoles typically avoid. The constant evolution of cheating methods—from software exploits to sophisticated hardware hacks—requires developers to remain vigilant, continuously refining AC technologies and collaborating with platform holders to maintain fair play. As the industry pushes forward, one thing is certain: cross-platform play is here to stay, and so is the commitment to making it a fair and enjoyable experience for all.
Note: Denuvo’s parent company Irdeto is a Sponsoring Supporter of Piracy Monitor. While this is a very important issue for game consumers as well as for platform suppliers, Piracy Monitor cannot provide endorsements, in its efforts to maintain neutrality in a competitive industry.
