Cross-play Is Coming To Overwatch sometime soon

Popular online brawler Overwatch is finally enabling cross-play! The announcement came today via the official Twitter account and ends months of speculation over the feature.

With Overwatch 2 development progress being kept under wraps, the announcement aims to add longevity to the current title.

Overwatch Cross-play Release Date

The developer update, given by Aaron Keller, did not specify a launch date for the cross-play feature. Due to some of the preparation work required for console players, the feature may still be a few months away yet.

How Will Overwatch Cross-play Work?

This is a bit tricky to explain. Even with cross-play enabled, you will not automatically be thrown into random lobbies consisting of a mix of console and PC players. Instead, only if you create a mixed platform party will you encounter true cross-play.

If you are a PC player and queue in casual game modes, you will still only encounter PC only lobbies and the same applies to console players. If you start a party with a mix of PC and console players, then you will be matched with similar parties to create cross-play matches.

READ MORE: Everything You Need To Know About The 2021 Overwatch Summer Games

Is Overwatch Cross-play Available In Competitive?

Unfortunately, crossplay will not be enabled in competitive play. This was made clear during the developer update. This is likely down to the perceived skill gap between PC and console players.

Overwatch Cross-play Supported Platforms

All current platforms are included in the Overwatch cross-play announcement. This means it doesn’t matter if you’re on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch or PC. When the feature is live, you’ll be able to access and enable the feature through the in-game menus.

Again, rules are slightly different if you play on PC. You will not be able to disable cross-play on PC when it launches. Console players, however, can disable it to ensure they only matchmake with other players on their platform.

Free Overwatch Golden Loot Box

A small treat being offered along with the cross-play announcement is a free Golden Loot Box. To claim this, all you have to do is log into Overwatch before the end of 2021.