Is NHL 22 cross platform/crossplay?

NHL 22 is the first game in the series to come to next-gen consoles, though it isn’t a next-gen exclusive. It’s available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and PS5. That’s a fair amount of systems to release on. As such, you might be wondering if NHL 22 offers crossplay between platforms — especially because crossplay has started to become a feature growing in popularity.

Related: NHL 22: How Superstar X-Factor abilities work

Unfortunately, NHL 22 does not offer crossplay, so Xbox players won’t be able to play with their PlayStation friends. Even more disappointingly, the game also isn’t cross-gen; if you’re not lucky enough to own a next-gen console but want to play with a friend who’s managed to snag one, you won’t be able to.

It’s important to note that owning the X-Factor edition of the game on PS5 gives you access to a PS4 copy as well. You can technically play with your friends on PS4 even if you own a PS5, but you’ll only be able to do so if you’re playing the PS4 version. The Smart Delivery feature for Xbox Series X/S players means a backwards compatible version cannot be installed, so playing a last-gen version of NHL 22 on a newer console is exclusive to PS5.