CROSSFIRE X

Publisher Smilegate, Xbox Game Studios

Developer Smilegate, Remedy Entertainment

Format Xbox One, Xbox Series X

Origin South Korea, Finland

Release 2020

Back in 2019, just as free-to-play multiplayer shooters seemed to be all anyone was playing, Remedy bucked the trend by releasing Control. But even as the Finnish developer was bullishly making its case for story-led solo games, it was also hard at work collaborating on the world’s biggest free-to-play multiplayer shooter.

That would be surprising enough had it meant 100 Max Paynes running around an island. But the game on which Remedy is collaborating is one you may not even have heard of, despite it being the world’s most-played, with one billion players at last count. Tactical FPS is the work of South Korean developer Smilegate, and across and green with envy. Even so, it was pretty much unknown in Europe and the US until the announcement at last year’s XO19 that a console version, , is coming to Xbox One – with a fully-fledged singleplayer campaign provided by Remedy.