Blizzard Entertainment has announced that Overwatch will be getting cross-play implementation, allowing players to team up no matter which platform they’re using to play.
Cross-play will be powered by the latest global Battle.net update, so its release will mean all players on a platform other than PC will need to create a Battle.net account and link it to the account on their console, even if they do not plan on using the cross-play capability.
In addition, all players who log in to Overwatch before the end of 2021 will receive a Golden Loot Box to celebrate. You’ll get one of these for each platform you play on, even if they share a Battle.net account.
You can watch the full developer update covering the announcement below:
While cross-play is coming to Overwatch, the developers have made it clear that cross-progression will not be implemented at this point, but state they are excited to work on it in the future, as they understand that it is an important feature for some players.
Console players will by default be matched with parties of other console players, while PC players will be matched with mixed console and PC groups.
However, for competitive play specifically, matchmaking pools will remain separate for PC and console players. So you won’t be able to work as a cross-platform party competitively if one or more of you is on PC, but you can still team up across PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo consoles.
PC players cannot cancel cross-play, but other players may disable the feature and be matched only from pools on their particular console if they prefer. The feature will be enabled by default.
It should be noted that the cross-play implementation is only in the beta phase, so there are likely to be changes and improvements going forward.
While no specific date has been given, cross-play will be going live before the end of Competitive Season 28 on July 1.
Overwatch is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
