Originally posted by Elegant Caveman:

Originally posted by Irongate Smiffe:

Firstly. Crossplay (Playfab) is a microsoft system, not Epic game store.

Great to hear! Assuming you have no intention of changing that.

Originally posted by Irongate Smiffe:

So if you use Microsoft Game Pass, you only have the option for crossplay with playfab.

If you use the Steam client, you have the option for both!

If I'm understanding this correctly, this means that as long as I only play the game on Steam, and don't use crossplay, I won't be forced to interact with any third-parties outside of Steam's ecosystem?

For steam users when starting a game you have the option to turn crossplay on or not.
Steam users hosting a dedicated server you have the option to enable crossplay or not.

It's fairly obvious too when you go to start your game. There are 3 toggles.
Start server this enables multiplayer instead of single player.
Community server enables it to be listed publicly in the community tab.
Cross play enables crossplay.