Overwatch is finally bringing cross-play to players on console and PC. Game Director Aaron Keller took center stage to explain the long-awaited feature in Blizzard Entertainment’s latest developer update. Starting “soon” on an unspecified date, all Overwatch players on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X | S will have the option to enable (or disable) cross-play with others if they choose.
With so many platforms in mind, the Overwatch team went over a few additional details in an FAQ. First, cross-progression will not be available with cross-play, at least at launch. Additionally, console players will need to create and link a Battle.net account to access cross-play, as the service will allow you to maintain communication with other players.
Then there’s Overwatch’s well-established competitive scene. Cross-play will be automatically enabled for all game modes in Overwatch with the exception of Competitive games. There, players will be split into two pools, console players and PC players, for balancing purposes.
This is only Keller’s second time hosting the developer update series since Jeff Kaplan, Overwatch’s previous game director, left Blizzard after 19 years of work. His departure arrived in the middle of development on Overwatch 2, which is expected to arrive sometime next year.
