Space Engineers Crossplay: EOS and Console Compatibility

Space Engineers crossplay works, and it needs a dedicated server with EOS networking and console compatibility enabled. The exact settings and mod caveats.

Updated September 12, 2026

Space Engineers

Short answer: yes — and unlike most survival games, Space Engineers crossplay is something you turn on rather than something you wait for. PC, Xbox and PlayStation players share worlds through Epic Online Services, and a dedicated server is the cleanest way to host one.

Crossplay is two dedicated-server settings, not a toggle in the game

Keen's own announcement puts it in one line: "Dedicated servers can enable EOS networking and Console compatibility." Those are the two settings. Network Type moves the server off the Steam network and onto EOS, and Console Compatibility makes the world legal for console clients. Leave either one alone and your server stays PC-only, quietly.

The second thing to know is that Keen's own public servers are not the example to copy. From the same announcement: "Official Keen (PC) servers will stay PC only. Official Keen EOS (Xbox) Servers are cross-platform from now on." If you have been testing on an official PC server and concluded crossplay does not work, that is why.

Is Space Engineers Cross-Platform?

Yes. Crossplay between PC and Xbox shipped in Update 197.1, whose feature list reads "Added crossplay between PC and Xbox players" and "Added Epic Online Services category into PC Join screen server browser (players can switch between steam and EOS there)".

PlayStation joined later. Keen's Warfare Evolution announcement described it as "Our first update that is released simultaneously on 3 different platforms - Steam, Xbox and now also on PlayStation!", and the Microsoft Store release note says "With full crossplay, Microsoft Store users can team up with their Steam and PlayStation friends and explore Space Engineers on their platform of choice!" The Steam store page carries the Cross-Platform Multiplayer category to match.

Quick facts

Crossplay: Yes — PC (Steam), PC (Microsoft Store), Xbox, PlayStation. Mechanism: Epic Online Services (EOS). Dedicated servers: Fully supported, and the recommended way to do it. Server settings required: Network Type = EOS, plus Console Compatibility. Mods: Yes, but mod.io only — not Steam Workshop. Cross-progression: No.

Which Platforms Can Play Together

The decision that matters is which network your server publishes on, so the matrix is drawn that way:

Your server's setting	PC (Steam)	PC (Microsoft Store)	Xbox	PlayStation
Network Type: Steam	✓	✗	✗	✗
Network Type: EOS + Console Compatibility	✓	✓	✓	✓

Players pick the matching list on their side. Space Engineers' Join Game screen has a Steam/E toggle that switches the server browser between Steam — PC-only games using Steam accounts — and EOS, the PC, PlayStation and Xbox crossplay list. A correctly configured crossplay server that nobody can find is usually a player looking at the wrong tab.

One hard limit: the dedicated server software is a Windows application and does not run on a console. Consoles join a server; they never host one.

How to Turn Crossplay On

Stop the server. Config changes made while Space Engineers is running get overwritten when it saves and shuts down.
Set Network Type to EOS. This moves your server off the Steam server list and onto the EOS list, which is the one console players and Microsoft Store players can see.
Enable Console Compatibility. This is the setting that makes the world itself legal for console clients, and it is the one with prerequisites — see the warning below.
Set your PCU block limits. Keen's Fieldwork patch notes are explicit: "Console Compatibility is automatically disabled in the dedicated server GUI if PCU Block Limits are not set." If you skip this, the setting silently reverts and you will spend an evening wondering why.
Keep your total mod size under 3 GB. Same patch notes: "Console compatibility is automatically disabled in the dedicated server GUI if total mod size exceeds 3GB."
Move any mods to mod.io. Covered in full below. This is the step people miss.
Start the server, then check the EOS tab. Confirm it appears under EOS rather than Steam in the in-game browser before you tell anyone the server is up.

On a hosted Space Engineers server from us, these live in SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg, which you edit through the File Manager — see Configuring your Space Engineers server for the file's layout and the ports that have to match your allocation. If you prefer a GUI, Keen's Dedicated Server configurator writes the same file; that route is described in the same guide.

Console Compatibility can switch itself back off

It is not a setting that stays put regardless. Unset PCU limits or an oversized mod list will disable it for you, and the server will start perfectly happily as a PC-only server. Re-open the config after your first start and confirm the value is still what you set it to.

Mods: mod.io, Not Steam Workshop

This is the part that contradicts what most Space Engineers server guides — including one of ours — will tell you.

Keen's official dedicated server documentation is unambiguous: "Mods may be added freely but Xbox players can only use mods that are hosted on Mod.io. If hosting a server specifically for Xbox players, or for a mix of PC and Xbox players, please only use mods hosted through the Mod.io service." Marek Rosa's announcement post says the same from the world's side: "Worlds can mix mods from both steam and mod.io. Though, if PC players want to share the worlds with Xbox players, it has to be considered only mod.io items will be available there."

So a crossplay world is a mod.io world. Keen documents the reference format as Service:Mod ID, giving "Steam:123456787890 or mod.io:1234567890" as the examples.

Our Workshop mods guide does not apply to crossplay worlds

How to install Space Engineers Workshop mods walks through the <Mods> block with <PublishedServiceName>Steam</PublishedServiceName>. That is correct for a PC-only server and wrong for a crossplay one — on a crossplay server the service must be mod.io, not Steam. Use 317 for the structure of the block and the load-order advice, and substitute mod.io entries. The most reliable way to build the list is to let the configurator write it rather than hand-editing the service names.

On modded crossplay generally. A 2021 hotfix note once said "Modded crossplay is temporarily unavailable -> vanilla crossplay is still available", and that line still circulates. It is five years old and superseded: Keen's current dedicated server guide documents adding mod.io mods for mixed PC/Xbox servers, and the 2025 Fieldwork patch notes set a 3 GB total mod size ceiling for Console Compatibility — a limit that would be meaningless if modded crossplay did not work. Treat it as supported, and still test your specific mod list with one console player before inviting thirty.

Scripts are the real restriction. Microsoft and Sony do not permit script execution on their consoles. Keen's guidance is that on dedicated servers, mods with scripts will run, but only if they do not require client-side scripts. Server-side scripting is fine for console players; anything that must run code on the client is not.

Common Questions

Do console players need to do anything special?

They switch the Join Game browser to the EOS tab and find your server there. There is no separate opt-in.

Why can my PC friends see the server but not my Xbox friends?

Almost always one of three things: Console Compatibility is off (or disabled itself because PCU limits were unset), the mod list is over the 3 GB ceiling, or your friends are looking at the Steam tab instead of EOS.

Does crossplay work with Steam Workshop mods?

No. Crossplay worlds use mod.io. See the section above, and note that our Workshop mods guide is written for PC-only servers.

Does my character carry between platforms?

No. Crossplay lets different platforms share a server. Saves and characters still belong to the platform you play on.

Can I switch an existing PC-only world to crossplay?

Change the settings and restart, then verify the world still loads and Console Compatibility is still enabled. Worlds built on a large Steam Workshop mod list are the awkward case — those mods have to be replaced with mod.io equivalents, which is a rebuild rather than a setting change.

What about Torch?

We could not find an official Keen statement either way on running Torch alongside EOS and Console Compatibility, so we are not going to invent one. If you depend on Torch plugins, test the combination on a throwaway world before committing a community server to it.

Are there world content limits for console compatibility?

Yes, and they have changed over time. The 197.1 notes recorded a cap of three planets in console-compatible worlds, and the current requirement is that PCU block limits must be set. Check your own config after the first start rather than trusting a number from an old guide.