A leak earlier this month suggested Overwatch might come to Nintendo Switch. Earlier today we got to see the official reveal and now we need to look at what we’re actually getting besides motion controls.
They’re calling it Legendary Edition. So I’m thinking this must be the pinnacle of what Overwatch has to offer. Sadly we’re not getting the full potential experience since we’re missing a few key ingredients that make up the exiting game that is Overwatch on other consoles and PC. Motion controls are a neat addition and will work like they did in Splatoon, which is a brilliant option! But only this will not guarantee the game’s adoption on Switch.
Voice chat
Screaming out instructions to your other 5 team members in the heat of a match is key to win against another well rounded team. Using only the quick chat is not enough to make Overwatch on Switch a competitive platform for ranked games. Overwatch is all about status and climbing the competitive ladder. Not having an implemented communication system is really something that must be fixed before even talking about ranked and Esport Overwatch on Nintendo Switch.
I hope Nintendo surprises us soon with a software update and hardware that allows us to communicate in online games.
Crossplay
Blizzard is looking into crossplay and doesn’t rule it out just yet but at the moment there won’t be a possibility for PC, PS4, Xbox or Switch to share matches across devices. Crossplay is what made Fortnite so hugely adopted and it also ensures that there are enough players in less populated game modes within the arcade games in Overwatch. Of course getting the game working on Switch is already a great achievement and we can’t wait to see how it looks and plays in both handheld and TV mode.
Account Migration
Overwatch is all about “swag”. You get to a certain level and you want others to see how much time, effort and tears you’ve put into getting there. Showing off the account you worked on during the 3 years since release is what you’ll want to do. You don’t want to start all over again do you? This is a feature that ruined my first months on PS4 since I couldn’t migrate my PC account. I hope Nintendo treats the Blizzard account migration as an option. Of course if you’re a true competitive player on PC you won’t want to ruin your ranking by playing on Switch with different controls and a different meta. But I would like to migrate my PS4 account to the one on Switch on release.
Streaming
Today’s gaming is all about streaming and sharing. And Overwatch is a game that is hugely popular on Twitch, especially during the official Overwatch League. It’s about time that Nintendo released a native support for Twitch Streaming. I don’t care if it’s software or hardware that links to my dock. But I’d like to stream my sweet Dva gameplay from my Switch when I rain down on my foes!
This sounds a bit like a wish list but overall I think this would elavate both the Switch and Overwatch into a good partnership and it would open up more possibilities for popular games to land on the hybrid platform. What do you think? Is this enough? Or would you like to see something else implemented to Overwatch on Switch?
