Activision Blizzard’s follow-up to the legendary 2016 hero shooter is going free-to-play, with Early Access Beginning on October 4th, 2022.
Time has not been kind to The Overwatch Team in recent years. From continuing production through a global pandemic, a company fighting extremely severe legal battles, marketing confusion and what many believed to be an underwhelming first look during the Beta last month, Overwatch 2’s development has no doubt been a challenge.
However, a glimmer of hope was shown yesterday during the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, as Overwatch 2 ditched its previously confusing marketing campaign and became fully free-to-play, with ‘early access’ to the game being available later this year in October.
The trailer from the conference shows the full cast of characters we’ve come to know and love battling it out in both old and new maps, with 2 new maps being teased as well as the much anticipated tank hero, Junker Queen.
A follow-up ‘Reveal Event’ from the official PlayOverwatch Youtube channel has been marked for June 16th. It’s highly likely that’s where this new content will be shown, as well as the full ‘Wastelander’ animated short to introduce us to the new character.
It certainly feels as if Overwatch 2 wants to wipe the slate clean on what we’ve been drip-fed up to this point and start fresh – with a new reveal event and a free-to-play model to onboard as many new and returning players as possible.
The free-to-play announcement should also help silence a lot of the confusion and understandable backlash that has come from Overwatch 2’s previous news drops. Up until now, many players assuming they’ll have to buy the game – which is not too fundamentally different from Overwatch 1 – at full price.
All eyes are now on June 16th’s PlayOverwatch livestream for more details about all the new content and announcements, but it seems like Overwatch 2 is just about hanging on in there!
Overwatch 2 will launch on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
Featured Image Credit: Blizzard Entertainment