Skip to main content

Overwatch 2 has cross-progression, but you’ll need to merge accounts first

Blizzard announced that Overwatch 2 will launch with cross-progression across all platforms. The publisher released an explainer on Overwatch’s official website on Tuesday, telling players everything they need to know about cross-progression and merging their accounts before the sequel launches on October 4.

All Overwatch 2 players will need a Battle.net account to play the game, regardless of their platform. Starting on August 16, Blizzard will let players choose the console accounts they want to merge into their Battle.net account. By doing this, players can carry all the items and progression they gained in the first game over to the sequel, regardless of the platforms they’re playing on.

Recommended Videos

That said, there are some caveats. Players can only merge one account per platform, so players might want to link the account they spent the most on or have the highest ranking on to Battle.net. with the highest ranking or the most money spent. It’s also important that players link the correct console accounts to your Battle.net account and double-check them before confirming because players can merge them only once ahead of Overwatch 2′s release. If a player messes up during this process, they risk losing content that they paid for.

Once Overwatch 2 launches into early access on October 4 and all of a player’s console accounts are merged, they can unlink any of them from their Battle.net account at any time. However, there will be a one-year cooldown on linking any new accounts. PC players should have the smoothest transition, as all your progress from Overwatch will be automatically transferred to Overwatch 2 if both games are connected to a Battle.net profile.

Cristina Alexander
Cristina Alexander is a gaming and mobile writer at Digital Trends. She blends fair coverage of games industry topics that…
NYT Crossword: answers for Friday, November 8
New York Times Crossword logo.

The New York Times has plenty of word games on its roster today — with Wordle, Connections, Strands, and the Mini Crossword, there's something for everyone — but the newspaper's standard crossword puzzle still reigns supreme. The daily crossword is full of interesting trivia, helps improve mental flexibility and, of course, gives you some bragging rights if you manage to finish it every day.

While the NYT puzzle might feel like an impossible task some days, solving a crossword is a skill and it takes practice — don't get discouraged if you can't get every single word in a puzzle.

Read more
The PS5 Pro holds the key to the PS6’s success
The hero of Shadow of the Colossus stands in a temple.

When the PlayStation 5 Pro was revealed, the big buzzword to come out of the presentation was PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR). This was PlayStation's "secret sauce" intended to sell the $700 upgrade to new customers and existing PS5 owners alike. Similar to AI upscaling seen in technology like DLSS, PSSR allows games rendered at a lower resolution to be upscaled using AI to appear more detailed. For the PS5 Pro, this means removing the need to choose between a performance mode that prioritizes frame rate and a resolution mode that sacrifices frame rate for a clearer picture.

PSSR is the first time any kind of AI upscaling has been used on consoles ... and will be key in PlayStation's success for its true next-generation console.
Sidestepping the graphical arms race
With rare exceptions, new game consoles have mainly sold themselves based on providing a graphical leap above its predecessor. This was clear as day going from 8- to 16-bit systems, and perhaps at its peak going from 16-bit to 3D, but has since hit a level of diminishing returns. PS5 games are undeniably better looking than PS4 games of the same scale, but the differences are in the margins.

Read more
3 new Xbox Game Pass games to play this weekend (November 8-10)
An alien in armor with a light sword standing in front of a space ship window with a planet in the background.

This is a good week for strategy game fans subscribed to Xbox Game Pass because November's first new additions to the service all fall within that genre. Two of them are real-time strategy game classics from Blizzard Entertainment, and the other is a strategic take on an arcade classic. If you're playing on a console, these additions may not mean as much to you, but for Game Pass subscribers with access to a PC, these recently added strategy game games are well worth your time.
StarCraft: Remastered
StarCraft Remastered Announcement

The original StarCraft is a monumental release for Blizzard Entertainment. It gave the studio a third pillar franchise alongside Warcraft and Diablo, was one of the first major esports games, and set a standard that most RTS games after it have tried to follow. In 2017, Blizzard released StarCraft: Remastered, updating the classics' visuals, audio, and online features; that's the version of StarCraft that has come to Xbox Game Pass. While there are more approachable RTS games nowadays, PC gamers should check out the original StarCraft if they've never played it before to better understand the foundational building blocks of the RTS genre.

Read more