Ever since Sony relaxed its position on the matter, cross-play is an increasing reality with Epic's Fortnite leading the way in terms of uniting players across all of the major platforms. With more and more studios looking to build cross-platform functionality into their games, could Overwatch one day have a unified player base as well?
That very question was put to Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan, who danced around direct questions when interviewed at BlizzCon but did ultimately admit that the studio was having ongoing discussions about the possibility of making the hero shooter cross-play.
"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. It's something that would be very exciting for us to pursue," Kaplan told Eurogamer.
Kaplan was then pressed for something more concrete, at which point he added: "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 sympathise with that, we want to be able to do that too."
If it were to happen one day, as it stands that would mean players on PC, PS4 and Xbox One would be able to play together. But what about those poor souls on Switch who can't even play Overwatch? During the same interview, Kaplan also mentioned that the studio didn't "have anything to announce or any plans with Nintendo or Switch at this time," although he did add that "it's something we're very open-minded about."