After months of waiting,Overwatch 2looks like it is approaching some kind of release date this year. TheOverwatch 2beta was announced earlier this week, and now Blizzard has a release date for players on when they can get their hands on the beta for themselves.
Prior to this week, there was very little information aboutOverwatch 2’s official development status.There was an announcement in November thatOverwatch 2would be delayed, but very little reasoning was given regarding the delay. It is likely an effect of the scandals that have rocked Activision Blizzard in recent months, with development teams expressing their discontent with Activision-Blizzard’s CEO Bobby Kotick.Overwatch 2’s development team has changed in recent months as well, withOverwatch’s director, Jeff Kaplan, leaving Activision-Blizzard prior to the scandals emerging about the company.
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Blizzard announced that the PvP beta ofOverwatch 2will release on April 26th.through the link Blizzard provides in this tweet. The beta will include standard matches on the regularOverwatchmaps, in addition to four new ones as well as a new game mode called Push. All the original characters will be returning as well as the new hero Sojourn, while a couple of heroes have been reworked including Orisa, Doomfist, Bastion, and Sombra.
Overwatch 2will be moving to a new 5v5 formatfor its matches instead of the original 6v6 format of the original game. Blizzard has stated that this will improve matchmaking by eliminating a tank role, which is the least played role in the game. Players above 4000 SR (skill rating) in the original game are usually faced with long queue times, some reaching upwards of an hour. A few high-levelOverwatchstreamers end up playing other games while they wait in the queue.
Overwatch 2is currently in closed alpha, as a few streamers and Overwatch League players have access to the game for testing and professional purposes respectively. A couple of days ago,Felix “xQc” Langyel “accidentally” openedOverwatch 2briefly on streamthough some have questioned whether it really was an accident or if he did it for publicity. xQc started off as anOverwatchstreamer primarily, and when he streams it, it helps bring that game’s Twitch viewer numbers up towards bigger titles likeLeague of Legends.
WithOverwatchcurrently suffering from a lack of new content, a lot of players are looking forward to the beta to see what the future has in store for the series. A PvE beta forOverwatch 2down the road should also help draw some more attention towards the game as it approaches a release.
Overwatch 2is currently in development, with an open beta releasing on April 26th for PC for an unspecified amount of time.
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