'Sons of the Forest' Set to Release Early Access Soon — Will It Support Crossplay?

After years of waiting, fans can finally jump into the survival horror game Sons of the Forest when it goes into early access on Feb. 23. As the sequel to 2014's The Forest by Endnight Games, Sons of the Forest more-or-less re-captures the horrifying energy permeating throughout the previous game with new flourishes.

Players will struggle to survive on a cannibal-infested island once again but will be searching for a missing billionaire. Per usual, there are tools players can craft to overcome environmental obstacles and blood-hungry enemies looking for a succulent meal.

All that and more has eager fans on the edge of their seats, but some have wondered if Sons of the Forest would support crossplay functionality at launch. Here's a breakdown of everything you need to know.

Unfortunately, Sons of the Forest will not feature crossplay functionality when it launches into early access, but that may change — depending on what Endnight decides for the game's future.

As of this writing, Sons of the Forest will release as a Steam early access PC exclusive on Feb. 23, which explains why there's no supported crossplay feature.

However, it's safe to bet Sons of the Forest may arrive on PlayStation and other platforms later, following a similar schedule as The Forest released on PS4 when it officially launched out of its early access period.

Even so, The Forest still doesn't support crossplay between available platforms, which may be the same fate for Sons of the Forest.

"[Endnight] might implement [crossplay] for [the] launch of consoles, but if they don't get a ton of feedback for adding it, they might not sadly," wrote one player on the Sons of the Forest Steam page.

Other fans also believe "the game probably won't even release on consoles" and warns onlookers hoping for crossplay and console release to temper their expectations. Regardless, it's clear PC will be the definitive way to play Sons of the Forest for the time being until Endnight notifies its player base of the next steps.

In Sons of the Forest, it is possible for eight players to play together in an online co-op mode. It's no different from The Forest, which also supported eight players at once surviving in the wild.

Through online co-op, players can decide to team up or go about doing things in a different way than others. Unfortunately, you won't be able to play co-op locally, so it's best to connect with friends over the internet.

On the Sons of the Forest store page, there's no confirmation of Steam Deck support for the survival horror game. Steam Deck could run Sons of the Forest during its early access period, but performance dips and other issues may arise throughout gameplay — like with the recent Returnal launch on PC.

The best thing to do is wait for Valve to highlight Sons of the Forest as "Playable" through its compatibility program before diving in on Feb. 23.