Blizzard had a major presence at the recent Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, revealing the 5th and final class for Diablo 4 as well as releasing a brand-new trailer for highly-anticipated hero-shooter Overwatch 2. At the event, Blizzard made the surprise announcement that Overwatch 2 will be free-to-play and enter early access for its PvP mode on October 4, with more information to come later this week.
Since Overwatch 2 and the first Overwatch game share PvP modes, this effectively means that Overwatch in general is going free-to-play come October 4. To make it up to dedicated Overwatch fans that purchased the original game, Blizzard has announced the Overwatch 2 Founder's Pack. The Overwatch 2 Founder's Pack will be free to anyone that owns the original Overwatch by June 23, 2022 at 11:00am PT and will net players some freebies. Players will have to log in to Overwatch 2 by December 5 at 11:59pm PT to claim the Founder's Pack contents.
The Founder's Pack will include the Founder's icon, along with the General Doomfist and Jester Sombra skins. There will also be a "surprise gift" announced at some point before the Overwatch 2 early access release date rolls around on October 4. The nature of this "surprise gift" is anyone's guess, but it's possible Overwatch fans won't have to wait all that much longer to find out more about the Founder's Pack and what it will entail.
The next time Blizzard will showcase Overwatch 2 is later this week on Thursday, June 16 at 10:00am PT. It's being hyped as the official Overwatch 2 reveal event, and it will be there where players will get to see the Junker Queen animated short in its entirety. It's unclear what else the reveal event will have in store, but Overwatch fans will just have to tune in to find out for themselves.
It seems highly likely that the Overwatch 2 event on June 16 will also clue fans in on the game's next PvP beta. The first-ever Overwatch 2 PvP beta took place about a month ago, and Blizzard has made it clear that it plans on having more beta testing periods between now and the game's launch. With Overwatch 2 releasing in October, one has to imagine that plans for those next PvP betas are being finalized.
The previous Overwatch 2 PvP beta testing period excluded console gamers, so it will be interesting to see if they are brought into the loop for the next round of testing. Overwatch fans should find out more information sooner rather than later.
Overwatch 2 launches in early access on October 4 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.