In case you hadn't heard, Cyberpunk 2077 is good now. The much-maligned game, which was notoriously bug-ridden at launch, has had a renaissance since it received an overhaul and its first and only story expansion in September. Now, the act of dashing through the gorgeous and hyper-violent streets of Night City has grown to be a thrilling and relatively glitch-free experience. But the thing I’ve come to enjoy most about Cyberpunk lately is being able to take my knife-wielding cyber-ninja anyplace I like, thanks to a newish feature that hasn’t gotten the love it deserves: cross progression.
Cross progression (aka cross-saving) lets you carry your, well, progress from one platform to another with your character’s inventory and journey history intact. If you play the same title on some combination of Nintendo Switch, PC, Steam Deck, Xbox, and PlayStation, cross-saving allows you to continue right from where you last left off, no matter which device you last played on. It shows up mostly in multiplayer games like Fortnite or Destiny 2 that let you access your same character and account on multiple platforms—provided you own the game or have access to it through a subscription on each of those platforms. It’s less common in single-player games. Cyberpunk’s developer, CD Projekt Red, added the feature in an update last year. It’s also available for The Witcher 3. Ubisoft has cross progression as part of its Connect service that lets you sync progress in games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla across PC and consoles. Larian Studios added cross progression to Divinity Original Sin 2 in 2021 and says it will soon implement the feature in its new, very popular Baldur’s Gate 3.
The concept is different from cross-play, which lets you interact with users on different platforms in multiplayer games, so XBox users can play Fortnite or Call of Duty with friends who are on a PlayStation. Both features are present in a number of popular modern games, but how they manifest varies widely depending on the platform and game developer.
Cross progression is already here, it's just not evenly distributed. That’s a shame. Nearly all games—from cozy indies to AAA blockbusters—would benefit from the convenience the feature affords.
Proper cross progression in gaming is in its primordial stage: messy, weird, and imperfect but clearly still evolving. David Cole, CEO of the technology analyst firm DFC, says that adding cross-saving to a game is something not many developers can focus on given all the must-have features that need to be built into a title for release.
Plus, Cole says, consumer demand for it is not huge yet. He compares the evolution of cross progression to the evolution of television, which began with just a few channels and shows that aired in specific time slots. “Now you're able to watch anything you want anytime, basically. And it’s just become a natural part of the process there. And I think we're headed toward that.”
