For nearly half a decade, many players considered Overwatch to be one of their top online multiplayer shooters of choice. Players everywhere fell in love with its accessible yet deep gameplay, colorful art style, and memorable cast of characters. Now, fans of Overwatch on PC will finally get to play with friends who own it on consoles, as Blizzard announced the game will soon support cross-play across all platforms. The announcement follows an earlier AMA in which the company revealed it was considering the inclusion. Blizzard posted a developer update and an FAQ detailing what this long-awaited update will entail.
According to Blizzard, all Overwatch players need to sign up for a Battle.net account once cross-play arrives, and PC players specifically will be required to keep cross-play enabled. Nearly all game modes will support cross-play except for the Competitive mode, which will pit PC players against other PC players only. This ensures competitive matches will stay mostly balanced, as keyboard and mouse players have an inherent advantage over controller users. Having said that, even PC players who use controllers must play against other PC players in the Competitive mode.
A small caveat
The news may not fully satisfy everyone, as Blizzard noted that Overwatch will not support cross-progression as of yet. So PC players who purchase certain gear or reach a certain level cannot transfer that progress to consoles. In the developer update, Game Director Aaron Keller recognized that some players find this feature valuable, so he promised the developers will work on implementing it in the future.
The addition of cross-play will surely add even more longevity to an already massively popular multiplayer game. It may have taken five years, but PC players have every reason to celebrate that they will no longer be restricted from playing Overwatch with friends simply because they lack a gaming PC. Interested players can expect to try the cross-play beta soon, although Blizzard has not yet announced a release date for it.
