How to play Split Fiction multiplayer with friends

Multiplayer game modes are core to Split Fiction, a mandatorily cooperative game that’s ostensibly about the creative process but is more preoccupied with “cyber ninjas” and anthropomorphic hot dogs.

In Split Fiction, developer Hazelight Studios’ follow-up to its enormously successful It Takes Two, you and a friend play as the writers Mio and Zoe. Mio is a science-fiction writer, while Zoe writes fantasy. The duo is warped into a simulation of their ideas that manifests as a series of action, puzzle, and platforming levels — which you’ll need to work together to beat.

Here’s how to play muliplayer in Split Fiction through three means: local co-op, online co-op, and the Friend’s Pass feature.

How to play Split Fiction in local co-op

First, select the “play local” option from the main menu. Plug in two controllers, then decide who’s playing as Mio and who’s playing as Zoe. That’s it!

According to our testing on Xbox, the second player can even play with a local guest account — not something all local multiplayer games support (glaring at you, Halo Infinite). And you don’t need to be connected to the internet to play locally.

How to play Split Fiction in online co-op

Select the “play online” option from the main menu. Press Y (on Xbox) to invite a friend, and choose from anyone either on your the friend list for your platform (Xbox, PlayStation, Windows PC) or your EA Account friends list.

Split Fiction supports full crossplay across PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. To play crossplay, make sure crossplay is turned on in the game’s settings. You’ll also need to make sure you’re friends via each other’s EA Account. If not, you can add EA friends directly in Split Fiction by opening your EA Friends List, pressing Y (on Xbox), and typing in your friend’s EA Account name. It’s shown on the upper-right hand corner of the same window.

In Polygon’s testing across platforms, we’ve encountered instances where you both have to and don’t have to sign into an EA Account to play online. If you don’t have an EA Account and need to create one, whether for crossplay or non-crossplay purposes, you can do so either directly in Split Fiction (or any EA-published game for that matter) or via the EA mobile app.

How to play Split Fiction online with Friend’s Pass

Split Fiction’s Friend’s Pass is a returning feature from It Takes Two, allowing you to play co-op with a friend online even if only one of you owns the game.

Though the apps for Split Fiction’s Friend’s Pass aren’t live as of this writing, the way it worked for It Takes Two, the second player would download the game’s dedicated Friend’s Pass app from their platform’s store. Then, the first player would send them an online invite as normal (following the steps above).

If you’re on Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5, you’ll need an account with that platform’s online service (PlayStation Plus or Xbox Game Pass Core respectively) to play. We’ll update this story with links to those apps when they’re live.