Overwatch and its Blizzard pals will soon support Facebook streaming

Blizzard and Facebook are best friends.

Overwatch and its Blizzard pals will soon support Facebook streaming

Blizzard has announced a new agreement with Facebook, which will eventually allow users to stream a selection of the publisher's games via the social network.

No time frame has been provided for this feature, but the deal will begin to bear fruit next month with the addition of Facebook Login to Blizzard's PC games. This probably doesn't mean much to existing players, unless you really want to combine your Blizzard and real world identities for some reason, but for new players it will mean a one-click sign-up for Blizzard's games. A press release mentioned Overwatch, World of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2 as supported titles.

Here's a bit more on the streaming service, directly from Blizzard PR:

Blizzard is in the process of incorporating Facebook’s Live API in order to create its own "Go Live" streaming functionality for its games. When this functionality is implemented, players will for the first time be able to livestream their Blizzard-gaming sessions directly to their Facebook timelines, and friends will be able to subscribe and be notified when new streams are available.

The rest of the press release is of more interest to investors and marketing types than players; it highlights Blizzard and Facebook's recent collaborations to promote Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch via Facebook and Instagram. I suspect Facebook wrote that bit as it lovingly details the social network's reach and audience, in case you are suddenly inspired to plonk a couple of hundred thousand down on a huge promotional campaign or something.

Anyway: easy social streaming, that seems good. Maybe the Facebook Login thing could be leveraged for matchmaking and group formation in the future, too?