Raft — Three Years Later, Update 1.1 Didn’t Add New Waters, But It Fixed Drifting With Friends

On March 10, 2026, Redbeet Interactive released Update 1.1 for Raft. It had been over three years since the last full update for all players.

But the point of this update wasn’t to toss new things into the ocean.

To support cross-play, the developers admitted that large parts of the game’s code and underlying systems had to be overhauled and rewritten. The update was about fixing the foundation, not adding another room to the raft.

1.1 Wasn’t a Sudden Return—It Was the Result of More Than a Year in Beta

You might think 1.1 was something they suddenly started working on in 2026.

In reality, the multiplayer networking overhaul began back in 2022, and this cross-play solution entered Steam Beta in December 2024.

On December 22, 2022, the developers pushed Update 1.09, described as a “rework of the multiplayer network code.” Then in December 2024, cross-play, controller support, and in-game voice chat were added to the Steam Beta branch. Through 2025, the Beta branch continued fixing cross-play connection issues. It wasn’t until March 10, 2026, that 1.1 moved from Beta to the default branch—making all those features available to every player.

So the more accurate way to put it is: 1.1 didn’t “add cross-play.” It made cross-play stop being a beta feature.

The Ocean Assigns the Roles

Raft‘s multiplayer experience is, at its core, cooperation forced by the ocean.

You share one raft, one journey, and one pool of resources. Someone hooks floating debris from the surface. Someone dives for coral and ore. Someone plants crops and cooks on the raft. And someone grabs a spear and charges when a shark starts biting the raft.

This division of labor isn’t enforced by the system. There are no classes, no “you must do this” prompts. But the ocean assigns the roles for you—no salvaging, no planks; no farming, no food; no one handles the shark, and the raft gets chewed apart. Either you survive together, or you drift together.

Once in-game voice chat officially entered the default version, the process became much smoother. Things that once required a separate voice app—”Shark!” “There’s an island!”—can now happen entirely in-game.

It Never Rushes You Forward

Raft has a very clear personality: it’s not in a hurry.

It never rushes you forward. You can spend an entire afternoon expanding the raft to a second or third floor, building a bedroom with a balcony. You can spend two hours on a small island just to find one specific seed. Or you can do nothing at all—sit on the edge of the raft and watch the sunset, without feeling like you’ve wasted time.

That sense of pacing is actually rare in multiplayer games. Most multiplayer games are constantly pushing you to “do something”—play a match, grind a run, level up. Raft lets you do nothing, and doesn’t make you feel like you’ve wasted your time.

What’s truly interesting is that you can spend hours together without a “next level” to chase.

The Story Is Finished. The Reason to Keep Drifting Isn’t.

Raft‘s 1.0 version was called “The Final Chapter.” The main story was concluded. In community discussions, the developers made it clear: story-wise, more is unlikely.

But Update 1.1 proved one thing: what’s finished is the story, not the experience.

1.1 didn’t stuff new islands or new story into the main campaign. Instead, it brought the cross-play multiplayer that had been in testing for over a year into the default version. At least judging by the direction of this update, what they chose to maintain wasn’t “tell one more story,” but “let more people stay on this ocean together.”

As of this writing, Steam has nearly 380,000 reviews, with about 93% positive; the last 30 days hold at around 90% positive. With 1.1 now on the default branch, PC players can play with PS5 and Xbox Series X|S players, controller support is official, and in-game voice chat is included.

The point of these changes isn’t what they added. It’s that they reduced the friction of drifting with friends.

What matters isn’t the destination—it’s who you’re drifting with.

Copyright Notice: All game screenshots, character images, and related assets used in this article are the property of Redbeet Interactive and Axolot Games and their respective rights holders. This article is intended solely for informational, review, and commentary purposes.