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Five years later and Overwatch is getting crossplay

Launched in 2016 Overwatch will soon have crossplay with players on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, PC and Xbox all able to join the same games.

This will be facilitated, like most crossplay instances, with a persistent account across the different hardware. Those on console will need to create Battle.net accounts that will then be linked to their machines.

While that may sound innocuous it’s worth mentioning that this change will force console players to make one of these accounts, even if they have no intention of engaging with crossplay.

There’s a lot of weird exclusions and rules with this implementation, at least right now. For example cross-progression won’t be available at launch and, while console players can opt out of crossplay, PC players cannot.

No release date for Overwatch crossplay has been provided just yet but, when it does, anyone who logs into the game before the end of 2021 will be rewarded with a free Golden Loot Box. We have to imagine that crossplay will arrive some time before the end of the year then.

More information about crossplay has been laid out in this extensive FAQ, and there’s also a developer update video embedded below.

While we’re not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, we have to ask: who really cares? Overwatch was once a cultural juggernaut with news, discussion and content creation focused around it coming up daily.

Over the years it’s faded into relative silence. While hardcore players are still logging in every day, it seems that sheen of appeal that it used to have has dulled significantly and we doubt many news players are picking up the game on any given day.

Speaking to players in the past there’s always been a sense that the updates in the last few years have been inconsequential as focus shifts to Overwatch 2, a game announced in 2019 that we’ve seen and heard very little of lately. There’s been tiny reveals with, just recently, a deep dive into the game environments being released.

Outside of these snippets the community is begging to see more and, with BlizzCon cancelled again this year, many are doubting any serious push for Overwatch 2 will happen in 2021.

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