Jeff Kaplan gives update on possibility of crossplay in Overwatch 2

Blizzard’s Jeff Kaplan has reiterated his team’s desire to bring crossplay to Overwatch, explaining that it’s “exciting” and “interesting” but there are hurdles to overcome. 

In the last few years, walls have started to be broken down in gaming, and players on different platforms have been able to play against each other thanks to multiplayer crossplay capabilities.

While players have demanded crossplay for pretty much every multiplayer game, it’s still in the hands of publishers and developers to make it possible. One side might want it to happen, but there are plenty of things to be taken into consideration before making it happen.

Jeff Kaplan, the lead designer on Overwatch, has previously spoken about exploring the possibility of having crossplay in Overwatch 2, and now he’s reiterated that desire.

Will Overwatch 2 have crossplay?

Following the start of BlizzConline 2021, the Blizzard Vice President spoke to IGN about Overwatch 2, teasing changes to existing characters, explaining more about Overwatch 2’s story mode, and other topics.

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He was again quizzed on crossplay, saying: “We are extremely supportive and excited about the concept of cross play. We love it in other games. In general, our thought is any system the game can adequately run on, and any way that people can play with their friends – even just for reasons of improving the matchmaking experience – we’re very excited about those ideas.”

While Kaplan added that his team doesn’t have anything to announce, they want cross play to happen – if they can overcome some hurdles. “We are interested in exploring it and if we can overcome the hurdles, we would love to bring a feature like that to our players someday,” he added.

Crossplay being in Overwatch 2 would no doubt delight the fans who have wanted it since Overwatch first launched, but it is a fine line to walk.

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Mixing the PC and console player pools causes plenty of issues and can cause splits in the community. This has been prevalent in games like Call of Duty and Fortnite where PC players have complained about features like aim assist.

It also gives cheaters the chance to ruin the experience for console players, given hacks and cheats are more prevalent on PC.