Warriors without PCs can sharpen their swords because Mordhau is coming to consoles. The vicious multiplayer medieval melee game made the announcement on YouTube with a trailer showcasing the kind of intense and brutal battles fans of older warfare will enjoy.
Officially released on Steam in April 2019 by Slovenian developer Triternion, Mordhau lets up to 80 players slash and slay each other with a multitude of medieval weaponry. From frying pans and polehammers, to bows and giant rocks, Mordhau offers a weapon for just about every fighting style while running through large open battlefields, besieging walls, or carefully fighting in tight 3v3 arenas.
The console trailer featured the first look at what fiery fighting, careful parrying, and striking down enemies will look like on PlayStation and Xbox. Teasing fans with a 20-second trailer, it let players know that the same gruesome gameplay they love in the PC version of Mordhau will be maintained when it makes its way to consoles. No official release date was offered, so those looking to become medieval warriors and PVP with friends and foes in Mordhau will have to settle in and wait to do battle.
The game hasn't received much content since its Eastern Invasion updates beginning in December 2021 and finishing in June 2022, and now players know why the Mordhau developers have been taking their time dropping new maps and cosmetics. Fortuitously, the game has been receiving semi-regular patches and hot fixes since its release, and it still maintains a Very Positive rating on Steam despite users' worries about the player base shrinking. The trailer also doesn't mention if there will be cross-play with PC players, something the game's Reddit and Steam communities have both expressed concerns about.
Mordhau may run into issues being late to join the console party since fighting with Chivalry 2 to gain players will be a continuous uphill battle for Triternion. If cross play is not available, there may be much less enthusiasm for this announcement by PC fans. The decision to release Mordhau on consoles might not split the player base, but the choice to not give users the option to join their PC brethren in battle may have some worried about the lack of new targets. Melee combat games usually give an edge to those that dedicate hours upon hours within its gameplay loop, making it harder for new players to find a foothold in the game. If the developers do indeed decide against throwing everyone together, the game itself might struggle to find a continuous footing in both PC and console markets, but that remains to be seen.
Mordhau is available on PC and in development for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
