Does Cuphead for Nintendo Switch have cross-play?

cuphead
cuphead (Image credit: Nintendo)

Cuphead and Mugman face off against a female boss

Cuphead and Mugman fight boss battle

Does Cuphead for Nintendo Switch have cross-play?

Best Answer: Not right away. Cuphead is launching on Nintendo Switch on April 18, 2019, and will feature a single player campaign and two-player local co-op. Microsoft has also partnered with StudioMDHR to bring Xbox Live features into Cuphead on Nintendo Switch in the months after the launch, but they'll be added to the game in a post-launch update. As far as specific Xbox Live features, we are unclear on what this entails, but achievements are a high possibility.Pay back your debt to the devil: Cuphead ($20 on Nintendo eShop)

What is Cuphead?

Cuphead is a run-and-gun action game that puts a heavy focus on boss battles. It features a wonderful art-style that is reminiscent of the 1930s: hand-drawn cel animation, watercolor backgrounds, and even original jazz recordings.

Originally, Cuphead came out in 2017 and was a Microsoft exclusive title — you could only play it on Xbox One and Windows PC at first. It eventually came to macOS in 2018 There are still no plans to bring Cuphead to PlayStation 4, but Cuphead coming to Nintendo Switch was definitely a big surprise to everyone.

Don't let the cute and charming old-school animation fool you—Cuphead is notorious for being quite difficult among the player base. It's definitely not recommended for players who get frustrated easily. It also involves a lot of muscle memory, as each death should be seen as a moment of learning and getting better for the next attempt.

So Cuphead won't have Xbox Live features on launch?

That's correct. When Cuphead launches on the Nintendo Switch on April 18, it will not have the promised Xbox Live cross-play features. These features will be coming in a post-launch update in the months following the release.

With the initial purchase, Cuphead on Switch will only feature single player and local two-player co-op.

What will be the Xbox Live features in the Switch version of Cuphead?

It has not been confirmed what Xbox Live cross-play features will be coming to the Nintendo Switch version of Cuphead, but we're going to guess that achievements will be one of them.

Achievements will be very likely, since Minecraft on Switch has that same cross-play function. When you complete an achievement on the Switch version, you'll get the achievement on your Xbox Live account. These may appear as separate achievements for each device though (that's what it currently looks like with Minecraft).

Other things that we hope to see are perhaps cloud saves, so you could pick up where you last left off on the Xbox or PC/Mac version, though we're not sure if that's possible. Online co-op would also be nice, though latency and lag could be potential issues.

Either way, we'd be excited for just achievements with our Xbox Live accounts, so at least that's one thing that wouldn't be too hard to accomplish, considering that it already works with other game titles.

We'll be sure to update this article if we hear anything more.

Christine Chan

Christine Romero-Chan was formerly a Senior Editor for iMore. She has been writing about technology, specifically Apple, for over a decade at a variety of websites. She is currently part of the Digital Trends team, and has been using Apple’s smartphone since the original iPhone back in 2007. While her main speciality is the iPhone, she also covers Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac when needed. When she isn’t writing about Apple, Christine can often be found at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, as she is a passholder and obsessed with all things Disney, especially Star Wars. Christine also enjoys coffee, food, photography, mechanical keyboards, and spending as much time with her new daughter as possible.