Overwatch will be receiving cross-play support.
Blizzard has announced that cross-play will be coming to Overwatch. No exact date was given, other than "soon." Cross-play will allow players on all platforms to play against each other. When the feature releases, all players will need to make a Battle.net account and link it to their platform. PC players do not need to create an account, as they already have one. It was also revealed that even if gamers do not wish to utilize cross-play, they will still need to create a Battle.net account and connect it to their console. Everyone who logs in through the end of 2021 will receive a free Golden Loot Box to celebrate cross-play being implemented into Overwatch. Players will receive a Loot Box on every platform that they play on.
Blizzard did mention that progress will not carry over between platforms when cross-play is implemented. Stats and ranks will not be reset when cross-play launches. There will also be three different leaderboards when the feature is added to Overwatch: one for PC players, one for cross-play enabled console players, and one for cross-play disabled console players. When gamers link their consoles and Battle.net accounts, their Blizzard Battletag will be displayed during matches rather than their console handle. However, there will be specific cases where their console handle will be displayed, such as friends lists and top 500 lists.
Cross-play will be enabled for all games modes with an exception for Competitive games. For Competitive games, players will be split into two different pools: console players and PC players. Players can disable cross-play and play matches with only those who are playing on their system, even if the other gamers have cross-play enabled. Cross-play will also be enabled for custom matches. Blizzard did warn that disabling cross-play may increase queue times.
Overwatch is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and the Nintendo Switch.
