Logging into Blizzard games will soon be easier than ever — and so will streaming live gameplay of those titles.
Blizzard Entertainment announced today it is working with Facebook to implement Facebook's Live API into its current slate of games. Later this month, players will be able to use their Facebook Login to access Blizzard games on PC, including Overwatch, Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm, Diablo 3, and StarCraft 2.
The immediate impact of this will be an easier way to log in and an opening up of Blizzard's games to Facebook's more than 1 billion active users. Long term, however, Blizzard is looking to use the Facebook Live API to add even more social functionality to its games.
First on the list: simple streaming ability. Though it doesn't offer a timeline for this to be implemented, Blizzard says it's working on adding "Go Live" streaming to its games. This means that players will be able to press a button and stream their gameplay live to their Facebook timeline, allowing any friends to watch and chat with them while they do so.
Gio Hunt, Blizzard's executive vice president of corporate operations, said the company is "working closely with Facebook on this integration for Overwatch, as well as our other games."
While we haven't seen Blizzard's streaming solution, Polygon has been streaming Hearthstone to its Facebook page every week. You can see the results for yourself on some of our recent videos from our full Hearthstone playlist on YouTube.
