Taking the idiom “better late than never” to heart, Overwatch is finally getting crossplay, a highly-demanded feature ever since the game launched in 2016. Roughly five years after the game’s initial launch, Blizzard has surprised fans by confirming that fans will be able to play Overwatch with their friends, no matter their platform, very soon.

Blizzard has been teasing new features for Overwatch and upcoming sequel Overwatch 2 a lot lately, and it seems this is probably one of the biggest planned updates for the original game. Whether or not this new feature will make its way into Overwatch 2 is up in the air, but it seems like Activision Blizzard is making an effort to unify its player bases across platforms. This follows Call of Duty implementing a similar policy in 2019, helping to further cement crossplay as an expected feature in modern online games.

SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY

Newly appointed director Aaron Keller revealed the new Overwatch crossplay feature in a new video, confirming that all platforms – including Nintendo Switch – will be able to play together very soon. This is likely one of the Overwatch features Keller teased earlier this year, and it seems like the change will be rather seamless. All players need to do is create a Battle.net account and link it to their console account. Sadly, as revealed in an Overwatch FAQ, the crossplay update will not coincide with cross-progression, meaning that players can’t take their unlocks and purchases between platforms.

It’s possible this update could be an effort boost player counts in Overwatch. The game has almost certainly lost some players since its height, so bringing in a feature that fans have asked for over many years while also creating one large pool for matchmaking could help pump some new life into the game.

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When it finally releases, Overwatch 2 will likely have crossplay, too, but nothing to that effect has been confirmed. It would be a bit odd to introduce such a significant system in the first game while the sequel is presumably right around the corner without carrying it over. It’s possible that Overwatch‘s upcoming crossplay networking was designed with the sequel in mind, but perhaps Blizzard saw an opportunity to implement it in the first game. Not only would that serve as a strong test of the feature, but it could stand to build hype for Overwatch 2 in the process.

Overwatch is available on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Source: Blizzard/YouTube, Overwatch

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Cade Onder
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Cade Onder is a 20-year old video game, movie, and chicken tender enthusiast. He has been writing about games since he was 14 and is always trying to learn more about the gaming industry. You can follow him on Twitter @Cade_Onder for bad jokes, bad takes, and pictures of chicken tenders.

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