Credit: Unsplash
Now you can ignore the cart on any platform.
While Activision Blizzard’s team hero shooter Overwatch has been available on just about every platform for years, including PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and even Switch, the lack of cross-play functionality has prevented any of those platforms’ playerbases from mingling. Cross-play has long been a requested feature for bringing the game’s entire community together, especially since most other major shooters like Call of Duty and Apex Legends have had it since launch. As of yesterday, though, the doors between platforms have finally been flung open. Mostly.
Yesterday, Activision Blizzard announced on the official Overwatch Twitter that the game has finally received full cross-play functionality between all of the game’s available platforms. Through your Battle.net account, or a console account linked with a Battle.net account, you can match up with any player on any other console all over the world, though you can also choose to opt out of the cross-play beta if you want to keep things to one platform. However, as this new feature is starting out in a beta state, it comes with some caveats.
Cross-Play has arrived.
You can now group up with friends across the globe on PC, @xbox, @playstation and @nintendo.
Link your console to your https://t.co/Vqndyf7pSK account and play with your friends! pic.twitter.com/FpOyCXT9sY
— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) June 22, 2021
Cross-play is enabled on all of Overwatch‘s non-competitive modes, including Quickplay, Arcade, and Custom. Ranked gameplay, on the other hand, is segregated between console players and PC players, presumably in an effort to prevent mouse and keyboard players from getting an unfair edge over those who can only play with controllers. Also, while cross-play is available, cross-progression hasn’t yet been figured out. Account level and character cosmetics are still locked exclusively to the platform you got them on, even if you play on another platform linked to your Battle.net account. The developers have said previously, however, that once cross-play is entirely figured out, they’ll see if they can make cross-progression happen.
