Facebook logins and livestreaming are coming to Blizzard games

Beginning later this month, gamers will have the option of logging into World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, StarCraft 2, Diablo 3, and Overwatch with their Facebook accounts.

Blizzard and Facebook have announced a new partnership that will bring Facebook logins to Overwatch, Hearthstone, and other Blizzard games, and livestreams of those games to Facebook timelines.

Beginning later this month, gamers will have the option of logging into World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, StarCraft 2, Diablo 3, and Overwatch with their Facebook accounts. The studio said the new login option will “pave the way for new social functionality in Blizzard games,” including a new streaming option called “Go Live,” which will give players the ability to livestream their gaming sessions directly to their Facebook timelines.

“Blizzard games are best when played with friends, so it’s important to us to provide our players with features and services that make it easy and fun to share their experiences with each other,” Blizzard EVP of Corporate Operations Gio Hunt said in a statement. “We’re working closely with Facebook on this integration for Overwatch, as well as our other games.”

This is actually kind of a big thing. I'm not sure how much fun it will be watching Facebook friends grinding WoW, but it does have some interesting potential for sharing Overwatch plays of the game, for instance (at least on those occasions when you do something properly PotG-worthy), or, if you're a die-hard Hearthstoner, for showing off ridiculous, meme-worthy topdecks.

A solid launch date hasn't been announced, but we'll no doubt be hearing more about it very soon.