Evidence is building that Overwatch may see a console port at some point. While no official statement has been made that a console version of Overwatch is in the works, gamers took it upon themselves to dig into the code and read between the lines to find out if a console version was on the table.
The biggest indication that Overwatch might come to consoles was the source code of Overwatch's European website which said this (thanks to wccftech): "Overwatch is Blizzard's team-shooter for PC and consoles." This line was removed shortly after it was found. Overpwn also found in the source code of the Overwatch beta strings for authentication checks for Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.
- INITIAL_PSN_OR_XBL_AUTH
- WAITING_FOR_PSN_OR_XBL_AUTH
On top of the physical evidence there is simply the way Overwatch was designed. It's easy to see the user interface is very console friendly, and it has built in controller support on PC. The heroes themselves have a small amount of abilities that would be easily mapped to a controller, similar to Smite.
A far less concrete clue is last year when, during a panel at BlizzCon, game director Jeff Kaplan said when asked about a console version of Overwatch, "That sounds awesome; that sounds really, really cool. We would love to see Overwatch played on whatever it could be played on."
Now everyone is waiting for BlizzCon 2015 to see if an Overwatch console version will be announced. Adding more fuel to the fire is the fact that Microsoft will be helping Blizzard live stream BlizzCon 2015's opening ceremony on the Xbox One. Make sure to tune in on November 6 at 11am PT/2pm ET to see if any of our paranoia and tin foil hat wearing will be validated.
Quick Take
The evidence isn't super compelling, but I really hope Overwatch gets a console version. The game looks really fun and like it would transfer over to consoles very easily. With Battleborn coming to consoles and Lawbreakers not ruling out coming to consoles, this team-shooter genre could bring some great games to consoles, that would be very welcome.
