I’ve been mostly an offline player of the F1 games recently, but I took advantage of a recent PSN Free Weekend to play some online multiplayer on F1 23. Including some Crossplay lobbies, where you’re racing against people on different consoles/platforms.

This is a game mode that’s been heavily promoted for lots of games recently, including the last few official F1 games, but does it actually work effectively? Can you race against players on other platforms well on F1 23?

The Crossplay feature does work on F1 23, but not particularly well. There are major problems with poor frame rate and screen freezes, and it’s not suitable for any kind of serious or semi serious competitive racing.

In other words, it’s OK just for racing in some casual random open lobbies. In fact, it’s actually necessary to even get a decent race at the moment, since same-platform only lobbies are few and far between. But the experience is quite disjointed and “laggy”, and it’s not suitable for any kind of serious league racing.

What Is Crossplay? (Quick Explanation)

For players new to the F1 game franchise, let’s quickly explain how the Crossplay feature works. It’s a neat multiplayer feature that allows you to race against players on other gaming platforms, not just the same one you’re playing on.

In other words, if you’re on a PS4/PS5 console, when Crossplay is enabled from the Options, you can race in online multiplayer lobbies on F1 23 against players on the PC or Xbox platforms, and vice versa

It’s a bonus feature that does help to ensure you’re at least racing in fuller lobbies and not sparse ones, with a much wider playing pool that can all compete in the same sessions. But just having this feature available doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll work well, and that’s the issue with a fast paced racing game like F1 23.

Let’s cover the problems first, since this is what readers probably want to know about the most.

Problems With Crossplay On F1 23

Honestly, when I tried Crossplay out on F1 23 recently, it wasn’t a very good experience. My own internet connection wasn’t the strongest, but it wasn’t terrible either. There’s serious problems with this game feature and I have my doubts it can ever be effectively applied on a fast paced game like racing games which are so sensitive to latency and where the relative position of players is so important.

Here’s some issues I noticed, that are all kind of interlinked and relate to a poor general connection:

1. Poor frame rate – I don’t know whether this was my own connection or just more general, but in general the frame rate whenever racing in Crossplay lobbies was poor. Just constant jumping and stuttering while the screen periodically keeps having to “catch back up” to itself, which isn’t evident anything like as much in offline game modes and isn’t good for fast pace stuff like F1 games where the screen needs to be right up on what you’re doing moment by moment. Doesn’t allow you to race side by side with any confidence, and wrecks qualifying laps as well sometimes. Just a messy, not very smooth experience whenever racing in Crossplay lobbies.

2. Screen Freezes When Players Leave/Join – This is a huge problem that’s always been on the F1 games to some extent even when they were same platform online, but it’s really bad in Crossplay lobbies. The screen always freezes whenever a players leaves or joins (which is common in open lobbies). And sometimes even when a player just retires. It just makes the experience poor and disjointed and can also causes collisions and crashes. You don’t need that when on a qualifying lap, or side by side with another player. This is something that should be fixed, or just do away with Crossplay altogether if it can’t work on racing games.

3. General lag – Just general lag/ping is also quite high in these lobbies as well. It’s enough of a problem even in same platform lobbies when you’ve got geographically distant players competing against each other. Adding different console platforms into the mix just adds to latency, which isn’t the best on something as fast paced as F1 racing games.

Advantage Of Crossplay On F1 23

Despite it not working very well, Crossplay can still be useful just for having some fun if you’re not taking it too serious. You can still compete in races, and you do kind of get used to the screen freezes and lag after a while.

In fact, if you’re not racing in official leagues, turning Crossplay on is really the ONLY way to properly race online most times. If you leave it off and rely on same platform only, I find the lobbies are too few and too sparsely filled most of the time to be able to race.

You kind of need to have Crossplay enabled in my experience, even though it’s annoying and laggy, to have a proper choice of lobbies with different race lengths/settings/tracks etc. Most players seem to have it turned on so you’re kind of having to default to using it as well, even though it doesn’t work that well at times.

If you’re not super invested in online racing as a serious venture, you can have some fun in Crossplay lobbies. However, for any kind of serious or semi serious league racing, you can’t really use Crossplay. It’s too laggy and disjointed – you’re better off sticking to same platform only.

How To Enable/Disable Crossplay On F1 23

If you want to turn Crossplay on or off on F1 23, you just do it from the main menu of the game, under the Options/Settings menu.

There’s a specific Crossplay tab that you can turn the setting on or off from. From the main menu, go to Options….Settings and find the Crossplay menu:

When it’s off, you can only search for, create or join online multiplayer lobbies that include players from the same platform you’re using. Honestly, this provides the smoother experience, but severely limits the number of lobbies/players open to you, since most players seem to have it turned on right now.

When it’s on (seems to be most common), you can race in lobbies with players from any platform (PC/Xbox/PlayStation). It provides much more choice and at least allows you to race in decently full lobbies, but the experience honestly isn’t the best on F1 23, so be prepared for a lot of lag and screen freezing, especially when people  leave/join sessions.