The Overwatch community is pretty tight-knit, and now with the game spanning across XBOX, Switch, Playstation, and PC — crossplay is finally available in Overwatch.

It’s no secret Overwatch appeals to a wide range of gamers across the globe. You’ve got the casual gamers to the pro players, with the cartoon style and low skill barrier to get started makes the title a hit with younger and older players alike.

Overwatch 2, the title’s highly anticipated sequel, is still a while away though, so players will have to content themselves with the original title for now.

There was always one problem with Blizzard’s flagship FPS though, the issue of cross-platform play. That shouldn’t be an issue anymore though, as the June 22 Overwatch patch officially brought crossplay live.

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What is crossplay?

We won’t be joining Lucio in Rio just yet, but we can finally play with friends on other platforms.

Overwatch certainly isn’t just for PC gamers. The title’s been released on Playstation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch as well, meaning that there’s a whole host of users playing on different platforms.

It will be joining titles like Fortnite and Apex Legends, which have a feature know as ‘cross-platform play,’ allowing players to group up and play with friends no matter their platform of choice.

So, if your mate likes to throw down on the sticks with their PS5 but you’re more of a cold, calculating PC player, you can still farm some loot boxes together despite your different hardware; just don’t bring up the topic of which is “better,” for everyone’s sake.

Is Overwatch crossplay?

Overwatch is always better with friends, and now you can play with more friends than ever!

One of the main issues fans have had with the iconic FPS since launch is the fact that it never supported crossplay while other games did. However, Blizzard have heard our pleas and have finally introduced the feature into the game.

Earlier on this year in June, Blizzard finally introduced the crossplay feature into Overwatch. To take part, just make sure your console account is linked to your Battle.net and you’ve added your friends you want to play with.

Looking to team up with friends on other platforms? Here’s how to do it!

In order to play with your friends on different platforms and utilize crossplay, Blizzard have announced that you’ll need to make sure your console is linked to your Battle.net account.

Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Sign up for Battle.net if you don’t have an account.
    • For those who do, just sign in.
  2.  Click your account’s name in the top right corner.
  3.  Choose ‘account settings’ from the dropdown menu.
  4. Select “connections.”
  5. In the list that appears, connect your Battle.net to your Xbox Live, Playstation Network or Nintendo account.
  6. Jump into a game and play with your friends!

How crossplay works in Overwatch

Crossplay is enabled for all game modes in Overwatch with the exception of Competitive games. Competitive players will be split into two pools depending on the system that they are playing on: one for console players, and another for PC players.

For balance purposes, PC players and console players will not be mixed in the same pool for competitive matches.

This means that if you’re on PC playing with friends on console, you can only play together in non-Competitive game modes. Any group consisting of both PC and console players will be placed into the PC player matchmaking pool.

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Mouse & keyboard players will not be able to join the console player matchmaking pool, regardless of who is in their group.

Finally, if console players are looking to prove themselves to PC players, they’ll have to do so without any Aim Assist, as the feature will be disabled by default if you group up with a PC player to equalize play during the match.

Will Overwatch 2 be cross-platform?

Former Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan confirmed Blizzard have been “exploring” crossplay for Overwatch 2.

While there’s nothing set in stone yet, it’s clear that Blizzard are exploring crossplay specifically for Overwatch 2.

Former Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan even noted “[Crossplay] is something we’re passionate about, and exploring,” for the sequel, so it’s pretty safe to say that we’ll probably be seeing the feature implemented there as well.

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That’s everything you need to know about crossplay in Overwatch! If you’re looking to keep up to date with all of the latest news, then check out Dexerto’s dedicated main page for our favorite Blizzard game.