No, neither The Forest nor Sons of the Forest has crossplay, and the two games get there for different reasons.
The Forest runs as two separate builds, one on PC via Steam and one on PlayStation 4, and they never connect to each other. Sons of the Forest is PC-only on Steam, so there's no second platform for it to link up with at all.
That means a Steam player and a PlayStation player can't share a survival run in The Forest, and every Sons of the Forest co-op session is PC to PC by default.
Two games, one shared name
People search "is The Forest crossplay" and often mean either game, so we answer for both. Endnight made the original The Forest and its 2023 follow-up Sons of the Forest, and their platform stories are not the same.
The Forest shipped on PC and PlayStation 4. Sons of the Forest stayed on PC, per its official Steam store page as of August 23, 2026.
Neither one added a cross-platform feature, so the co-op answer is the same for both even though the platforms differ.
The Forest and Sons of the Forest platform matrix
Find your two platforms in this table first, then read the section below it for the detail.
| Platforms | Crossplay | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The Forest: PC (Steam) | No | Cannot play with The Forest's PS4 version; separate builds. |
| The Forest: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 | Partial | PS4 and PS5 share a multiplayer pool only because PS5 runs the PS4 build through backward compatibility, not native PS5 crossplay. Cannot connect to PC. |
| Sons of the Forest: PC (Steam) | No | PC-only game as of the access date, per its official Steam store page. No PS5, PS4, Xbox, or Switch version exists, so there's nothing to crossplay with. |
The Forest: who can actually play together
The Forest has online co-op, but it stays inside one platform. PC players group with PC players, and PlayStation players group with PlayStation players.
The Steam build and the PlayStation 4 build are separate versions of the game with no bridge between them. There's no invite, code, or setting that links a Steam survivor to a PlayStation survivor. If you'd rather bend the survival rules, our The Forest cheats guide lists the console commands.
The one thing that looks like crossplay is not. PS4 and PS5 owners can play together, but only because the PS5 runs the PS4 version through backward compatibility, so both consoles are effectively on the same build. It's the same PlayStation game on two machines, not a native PS5 cross-platform feature, and it still can't reach PC.
Sons of the Forest: PC only, so no crossplay
Sons of the Forest is a PC game on Steam, and that's the whole platform list. With no console or handheld version in the wild, there's simply no other platform to connect to.
So "crossplay" doesn't really apply here. Every player is on PC already, which means co-op works through Steam's normal multiplayer and no cross-platform question comes up.
If you've seen posts pointing to a PS5 or Xbox release, treat those as unconfirmed. Endnight has said it's open to a console port, but as of August 23, 2026 there's no announced release date, and the official Steam page still lists PC only.
Cross-progression and cross-save
Crossplay and cross-save are different things, and this is the part people mix up most, so it gets its own answer. Cross-save means carrying your world and progress to another platform, not playing together in one session.
The Forest has no cross-save between PC and PlayStation. Save files are locked to the platform they were created on, with no official migration tool or cloud sync bridging Steam and PSN.
Sons of the Forest has nothing to sync across, since it lives on one platform. Your progress stays in your Steam save, because that's the only place the game runs.
How to play co-op in each game
There's no cross-platform toggle to hunt for in either game, because there's no cross-platform link to switch on. You group up by making sure everyone is on the same platform first.
In The Forest, invite friends inside your own platform's online co-op. On PC that's up to eight players through peer-to-peer or a dedicated server, while PS4 online co-op supports fewer players because of console performance limits.
In Sons of the Forest, invite friends through Steam's normal co-op flow, since everyone is on PC anyway. For a survival co-op that does span PC and Xbox, see Subnautica 2 crossplay. There's no separate off switch to worry about either, because no cross-platform connection exists to disable in the first place.
One gap to flag: the official Steam store pages for both games don't document cross-platform voice chat, so we're not going to claim it either way. Since neither game connects across platforms, players tend to use platform party chat or a separate app like Discord.
What some guides get wrong
A few write-ups blur the PS4 and PS5 situation into "The Forest crossplay." That overstates it. PS5 playing with PS4 is backward compatibility running one PlayStation build, not a cross-platform feature, and it never touches PC. If you want survival games that connect players more easily, our roundup of the top survival games on Xbox is worth a look.
The other common slip is treating a Sons of the Forest console version as a done deal. As of August 23, 2026 the game is PC-only on Steam with no confirmed console release date, so any "coming to PS5 and Xbox" claim you see is unconfirmed rather than fact.
Get paid for playing games on your phone
HeyCash pays you to play mobile game offers, take surveys, and finish offer walls, then cash out through PayPal. Free to start, and some reward options start at $1, paid through PayPal.