An Overwatch Nintendo Switch version isn’t entirely ruled out, but it will be a hard thing to realize.
That’s what Blizzard Entertainment’s Vice President and game director, Jeffrey Kaplan, said during an Overwatch Reddit AMA overnight. In the AMA, Kaplan was asked about development of the game on consoles. According to Overwatch’s game director, the team wanted the game to be on consoles from day-one, and was designed to be released on both PC and consoles. Kaplan expressed that he liked the challenge of releasing the game on multiple platforms.
From day 1 we wanted to be on consoles. We designed the game to be PC and console from the very start. The funny part was, we did not have a signed contract with Sony or Microsoft until very late in the process (right before we finally announced we'd be on console -- Blizzcon 2015)... but we'd been working on it since 2013.
We enjoy the challenge of being on 3 platforms. It's not too hard from a tech or design standpoint -- we're the type of people who enjoy that type of work. The thing that's been hardest for me to adapt to is not being able to release stuff or change stuff as frequently as we could on WoW (and still keep all 3 platforms releasing on the same schedule).
For example, we're still working on getting reporting working on consoles. It's coming... but not as fast as we would like.
Following this answer, Kaplan was asked whether the team would up to the challenge to release Overwatch on Nintendo’s new platform, the Nintendo Switch. Based on Kaplan’s reply, a Nintendo Switch version is still possible in the future, but it surely won’t be an easy task for the development team.
"I'm loving the Switch! My second favorite gaming platform of all time is the 3DS. Getting OW on the Switch is very challenging for us. But we're always open minded about exploring possible platforms."
It’s been a long time since a Blizzard title was released on a Nintendo platform, and whether Overwatch will be released on the Switch, remains to be seen. Surely, it would make a lot of Nintendo players happy, but for now we have to keep our fingers crossed.
Overwatch is available now for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
