Overwatch allows one person to have multiple accounts for a variety of reasons, like playing with friends at different skill levels and playing on different platforms. However, when a player makes a new account, they have none of the items they earned before. With the many achievements, sprays, voice lines, and skins in Overwatch, it can be confusing to keep track of what has been earned. With Overwatch 2 on the horizon, there have been many questions as to how player accounts and earnings will make the jump. However, Blizzard is looking to give these players peace of mind and has begun preparing fans for a smooth transition to Overwatch 2.
Blizzard announced in a news release on the Overwatch website that cross-progression will be coming to Overwatch and Overwatch 2. Players will be able to merge account progress and cosmetics onto one account through a verification process on Batte.net. Players will be prompted to select which accounts they want to merge into their Battle.net account when they first log on, followed by a series of steps that will quickly get them through the process of merging accounts. If players merge their accounts now, they will be ready when the title transitions to the Overwatch 2 game launcher, and all of their cosmetics will be readily available.
Cross-progression can be set up and ready starting today, however, there are a few stipulations with this version of it. In the FAQs of the announcement, Blizzard explains that Overwatch players will only have one chance to merge their preferred accounts. There seemingly will not be an option to "buy in" to merge other accounts as it was for changing names in Overwatch. Players will only be allowed to merge one of each platform per Battle.net account. For example, a PlayStation and a PC account or a Switch, PC, and Xbox, but not two PC accounts.
Most of the FAQ questions were aimed at console players and covered things like combining Overwatch League tokens, credits, Custom Game settings, endorsement levels, and more. Competitive SR placements and game settings like sensitivity and button mapping will remain separated by input pools.
Introducing cross-progression feels like one of the final steps in getting console Overwatch players ready and in the best position to seamlessly convert to Overwatch 2. Cross-play was introduced to Overwatch over a year ago, and it allowed nearly all platforms to play with each other except in Ranked Competitive play. Though Blizzard is asking for console players to do this as soon as possible, these changes will only be seen when Overwatch 2 launches.
Overwatch 2 releases on October 4 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Blizzard
