When Overwatch was announced for PC last year, Blizzard said that a console release “sounds awesome,” but stopped short of dropping any hints. Following the recent confirmation of the Origins Edition, Blizzard has revealed that it was the developer’s goal to make the game playable on consoles since day one. Game Director, Jeff Kaplan, said during BlizzCon 2015:
When we started to make Overwatch, it was our goal from day one to have this game playable on console. Designing the game so it felt great on a console controller almost put this forced design elegance on us.
We’re told that Overwatch will have “full integration with Xbox Live and PlayStation Network,” but there won’t be any cross-play between the consoles and PC. Senior Designer Jeremy Craig explained in an interview that it would be difficult to balance the game as PC players would have an advantage over console players.
From a gameplay standpoint, mouse and keyboard has a little bit of an advantage in terms of being able to spin really quickly. And our game is pretty fast-paced. It just felt like there was a little bit too much of an advtange. It just seems like the console crowd is going to love playing against the console people; the PC people will love playing against PC people.
The $60 Overwatch: Origins Edition will be available for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
