Blizzard games to be part of Facebook's live API

Blizzard Entertainment is working with Facebook to implement Facebook's Live API into its current slate of games which means logging into Blizzard games will soon be easier than ever and so will be live streaming gameplay of those titles.

Blizzard announced yesterday that later in 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 tie-up is reciprocal. Though 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, in the long term, Blizzard will be looking to use the Facebook Live API to add even more social functionality to its games.

The top on the agenda is ‘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 which means that players could stream their gameplay live to their Facebook timeline with a press of a button, 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."