As a multiplayer game, it’s somewhat surprising thatOverwatchdidn’t receive cross-play implementation sooner. With cross-play growing in popularity with the years and now at a point where it’s considered a standard in current multiplayer titles,Activision Blizzard confirmed cross-playfor the game earlier this month. And while it is technically still in beta, it’s available as of today.
The officialOverwatchTwitter account shared a short trailer to announce its release, with hacker character Sombra taking center stage and being made out to be the one to add cross-play to the game herself. Cross-play is enabled on every platform the game can be played on: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.
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As a fun nod, the trailer has Sigma, Mei, and Wrecking Ball in blue, green, and red colors to represent the PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch platforms. And to incentivize players into picking the game up, anyone who logs intoOverwatchbefore the end of 2021 will receive a free golden loot box.
The trailer also provides a brief explanation of how to set up cross-play. Fortunately, it’s simple, as all that’s required is for console players to set up aBattle.net account. Players will then receive a message after launching the game to link their Battle.net account with whichever console account they’re using. PC players don’t need to do anything since they already have a Battle.net account.
The official website goes into further detail and includes an FAQ to address certain questions players may have. For starters, console players are now required to have a Battle.net account to continue playing, even if they don’t plan on using the cross-play feature. Also, cross-progression hasn’t been implemented, so players can’t share their progress across multiple platforms.
Since there are some players that wish to stick to only playing against others on the same platform as them, cross-play can be disabled. Since it’s enabled automatically, players will need to switch it off in the in-game menu. However, for whatever reason, PC players cannot opt-out of cross-play.
Blizzard also touches upon theaim-assist feature, which is common in similar games but is considered by some to be an unfair advantage and is a reason why some PC players don’t wish to play against console players. Basically, if console players are grouped together with PC players, then console aim-assist is automatically turned off.
Despite working on a sequel, Blizzard has made it evident that it will continue supporting the first game alongsideOverwatch 2. Speaking of the sequel, while some new information was shared last month, the game currently lacks a solid release date.
Overwatchis available on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
