After months of waiting, Overwatch 2 looks like it is approaching some kind of release date this year. The Overwatch 2 beta 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 about Overwatch 2's official development status. There was an announcement in November that Overwatch 2 would 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, with Overwatch's director, Jeff Kaplan, leaving Activision-Blizzard prior to the scandals emerging about the company.
Blizzard announced that the PvP beta of Overwatch 2 will release on April 26th. Players can sign up for the Overwatch 2 beta through the link Blizzard provides in this tweet. The beta will include standard matches on the regular Overwatch maps, 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 2 will be moving to a new 5v5 format for 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-level Overwatch streamers end up playing other games while they wait in the queue.
Overwatch 2 is 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" opened Overwatch 2 briefly on stream though some have questioned whether it really was an accident or if he did it for publicity. xQc started off as an Overwatch streamer primarily, and when he streams it, it helps bring that game's Twitch viewer numbers up towards bigger titles like League of Legends.
With Overwatch currently 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 for Overwatch 2 down the road should also help draw some more attention towards the game as it approaches a release.
Overwatch 2 is currently in development, with an open beta releasing on April 26th for PC for an unspecified amount of time.