The Overwatch crossplay open beta, which was revealed earlier this month, is now online, which means that gamers on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo can now effortlessly join up and play together. To participate, simply create a Battle.net account (which you already have if you’re on PC) and link it to your console account.
Full information on how the new cross-play system works can be found at playoverwatch.com, but the good news for PC gamers is that all we need to know can be summed up in a single question:
Easy enough, eh?
The crossplay launch coincides with the launch of a new Overwatch event, Ashe’s Deadlock Challenge, which gives Ashe-and-Bob-themed prizes for playing Quick Play, Competitive, and Arcade games. This is how it works:
- Play 9 games to get the symbol.
- Play 18 games and you’ll get the spray.
- Play 27 games and you’ll receive what you came for: the epic. Ashe Deadlock skin
Between now until July 5, you can also get a lot of extra sprays by following Twitch streams in the Overwatch category. Two hours of viewing gives you one spray, two more hours gets you two more sprays, and two more hours gets you three more sprays.
To get the drops, you’ll need to have your Blizzard account connected to your Twitch account, and due to recent changes to Twitch Drops, you’ll have to pay a bit more attention than you did in the past. It’s worth noting that you must now manually claim drops within 24 hours after earning them in order to get them, and progress toward following drops will not begin until the current drop is claimed:
- You’ll now be able to see your watch time progress towards any given drop.
- Twitch users can now earn rewards before linking their Battle.net account to Twitch. Rewards will expire 7 days after they’ve been claimed if a Battle.net account has not been linked.
- You will no longer receive drop rewards automatically. You must instead claim the drop on the channel you’re watching or in the Drops Inventory menu on Twitch within the first 24 hours of earning it.
- You will need to claim your first Twitch Drop reward BEFORE you can earn progress towards the second and will need to claim the second Twitch Drop before you can earn progress towards the third.
Ashe’s Deadlock Challenge runs until July 5. Barring spectacular, unforeseen catastrophe, the Overwatch crossplay open beta will presumably last until such time as Blizzard declares it fully live.
