Blizzard in discussions with Xbox and Sony regarding Overwatch cross-play

Xbox has been quite vocal about their new stance on cross-play between consoles this generation. Sony hasn’t. With more games starting to allow cross-platform play, this generation has been less restrictive than what has come before. For example, the ever-popular Fortnite can be played on any console, be it Xbox, PS4 or Nintendo Switch.

One largely requested title for cross-play has been Blizzard’s Overwatch, and it would appear they know all about its high demand.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Blizzard’s Jeff Kaplan has stated the team’s interest in allowing Xbox and PlayStation gamers to play together.

” We’re super-excited about what’s going on with cross-play in all sorts of different games, from Rocket League to Fortnite, and we are constantly in discussions with the first-parties, Microsoft and Sony, to see where they’re at and gauge where their temperature is at,” Kaplan said.

“We are definitely having conversations that we’re interested in the thought of it.

It’s very complicated – from a technology standpoint, a game design standpoint, and from a business relationship standpoint. But we would be excited to tackle all of those challenges; we would love to try. We’re gamers; “Why can’t my buddies on this system or that system play together?” We sympathize with that, we want to be able to do that too.”

Overwatch is a team-based game that doesn’t quite have the functionality that Epic’s Fortnite has on the console front. Whereas Epic’s game allows users to invite friends who have Epic accounts, Blizzard’s game currently works through each console’s native invite systems. It would take a lot of work.

Overwatch is currently available on Xbox One for £44.99/£59.99.