How to Play Rainbow Six Siege on PC and Xbox: The Complete Guide
After playing hundreds of hours of Siege across platforms, the question I get asked the most is: "Can I play Rainbow Six Siege on PC with my friends on Xbox?" It‘s a natural question for a game that‘s practically tailor-made for strategizing with friends. And with crossplay becoming more common, you might assume the answer is an easy "yes."
Unfortunately, at the moment, crossplay between PC and Xbox is not possible in Rainbow Six Siege. While the game does offer extensive cross-platform capabilities, PC and Xbox are the two platforms left out from connecting with each other.
In this article, I’ll explain everything you need to know about crossplay and cross-progression in Rainbow Six Siege: how it works, which platforms can connect, adding friends, and all your burning Siege crossplay questions answered!
Which Platforms Can Crossplay in Rainbow Six Siege?
First, let‘s clarify which platforms can actually connect across Rainbow Six Siege:
- PC, Stadia, and Amazon Luna: Full crossplay between Windows PC, Google‘s Stadia and Amazon‘s Luna cloud gaming services.
- PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5: The PS4 and PS5 generations have crossplay.
- Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S: Similar full integration between Xbox console generations.
- PlayStation and Xbox: Crossplay supported between PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
As you can see, the two notable omissions are no crossplay between PC & Xbox or between PC & PlayStation systems. It‘s an odd choice not to enable full integration—many similar shooters like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare support seamless crossplay between PC and console players.
According to Ubisoft, restrictions were imposed due to concerns over cheating and a desire to maintain fair play. Still, PS4 vs. Xbox crossplay shows it can work between consoles—so perhaps we‘ll see expanded platform support after the launch of the Rainbow Six Siege anti-cheat system in 2024.
How to Enable Crossplay
If you are playing Rainbow Six Siege on supported platforms like Xbox and PlayStation, make sure crossplay is enabled for faster matchmaking and connecting with more friends.
Here‘s how to check your crossplay status and turn it on:
- From the main menu, open the Options tab
- Scroll down to the User Experience or General section
- Look for the Crossplay setting
By default on consoles, this will likely already be Enabled. But if disabled for any reason:
- Select the Crossplay box > choose Enable
- A confirmation prompt will appear. Choose Yes to activate crossplay.
Once enabled, you‘ll be matchmade with Rainbow Six Siege players on other compatible platforms. You may also notice faster queue times, as the player pool to join games with drastically expands.
Adding Friends Across Platforms
While PC and Xbox players can‘t squad up yet, there is robust cross-platform integration among the connected platforms:
- PlayStation ↔️ Xbox
- PC ↔️ Stadia ↔️ Luna
That means adding friends and inviting your squad is seamless within the crossplay network.
Here‘s how to connect with your crossplay buddies:
- From the Ubisoft Connect overlay (Shift+F2), access the Friends List tab
- Click the Add Friend icon
- Input your friend‘s Ubisoft Connect username (this is different from their PSN/Xbox tag!)
- Send or accept friend requests to link up across platforms
- Joined players will then appear in your connected friends list
From there, you can join the same squad, party up, message friends, and unlock all the conventional benefits of connecting within one platform.
How Many Friends Can You Squad With?
In Rainbow Six Siege‘s earlier years, your squad was limited to just 4 total players. But after consistent community feedback demanding larger lobbies, the maximum squad size increased to 5 players in late 2020.
So if your friend group extends beyond 4, Siege has you covered—you can now assemble a full team before matchmaking against others. This is particularly great news in the context of playing with cross-platform friends.
Does Rainbow Six Siege Have Cross-Progression?
Apart from crossplay, one of Rainbow Six Siege’s best features is extensive cross-progression that carries over your in-game progression across linked platforms:
- Operators Unlocked
- Weapon Attachments
- Player Level
- Statistics & Records
- Inventory
Nearly all elements transition seamlessly when switching between platforms—excluding Battle Pass and Clearance Level progression.
This makes it easy to play on Xbox while traveling, then pick back up exactly where you left off on PC when home. All progress stays perfectly synchronized between connected platforms.
And if you unlink a platform from your account? Don‘t worry: that progress remains intact if you ever reconnect that console or PC service later.
Will Crossplay Ever Come Between PC and Consoles?
At the moment, Ubisoft has not announced definitive plans to fully close the gap in crossplay capabilities for Rainbow Six Siege. But there is hope on the horizon.
Rainbow Six Siege will be integrating a new server-side anti-cheat system in 2024 alongside the launch of crossplay/matchmaking ratings. Ubisoft directly cited cheating concerns over integrating PC with consoles and desire to foster fair play between all Rainbow Six players.
If the upgraded anti-cheat measures prove effective at curbing hacking, it significantly improves the chances of removing that final platform barrier. There are few technical restrictions on full integration; rather, Ubisoft opted not to based on gameplay integrity concerns.
So post-anti-cheat, there is a realistic possibility down the road—I know myself and the full Rainbow Six community eagerly await that day for universal PC ↔️ Xbox ↔️ PlayStation crossplay support.
