Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan has provided yet another update on the possibility of crossplay and cross-progression coming to the game as the Nintendo Switch port launches on October 15.
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Since Overwatch was released in 2016, many users have clamored for some sort of crossplay between consoles and PC and some way for one’s progression in one copy of the game to carry over to the others.
However, the feature has never been added to the game. Not even with one’s progress or unlocks on the PTR carrying over to the live client on PC.
With the Switch version of the game coming on October 15, Blizzard devs have one again been bombarded with questions about crossplay as games such as Fortnite and the upcoming Call of Duty Modern Warfare have implemented the feature into its multiplayer.
Speaking with Ars Technica, Jeff Kaplan has provided an update on the future of the feature. (Timestamp 2:28 for mobile users)
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“I think we would love to have crossplay and cross-progression between the Nintendo Switch and other platforms,” Kaplan said. “It’s obviously extremely challenging in many different ways. And we hope that someday we can work through those challenges.”
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The director’s views echoed those made by Overwatch producer Wes Yanagi in an interview with Gamespot where he said the team was “exploring how to bring {crossplay} to Overwatch”, but didn’t have anything to share at the time.
Another developer, Matthew Hawley, told Eurogamer that “Crossplay and cross progression are something we’ve learned a lot about in the last couple of years, particularly looking at our other game Hearthstone.”
Hawley later added: “The industry’s been evolving on this in the last couple of years and we’ve been actively monitoring and paying attention to what’s been going on.”
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However, he stated that the company isn’t ready on a technical or business side to make the crossplay leap just yet.
While crossplay may still be a little bit longer away, the Switch release is not. According to Nintendo, Overwatch servers for Switch will go live at 11 AM PDT on Tuesday, October 15.