Overwatch 2 has had two well-received beta test periods. These gave the developers valuable notes towards tuning new and existing heroes. With a few months between the end of the second beta and its Early Access release date, fans were beginning to ask questions about if or when Blizzard would announce a third beta. Thanks to a developer at Blizzard, fans will get the answers they were looking for, but not what they wanted to hear.
Overwatch Commercial Leader and Vice President at Blizzard Jon Spector took to his personal Twitter account to share some news on the development of Overwatch 2 leading up to the Early Access release. The former Commissioner of the Overwatch League acknowledges the fandom's curiosity for information about a third beta. He then announced that the game will not be getting another beta pre-launch.
Spector explained that Blizzard is happy with the data that it got through the two public betas and is continuing to play test the game internally. With that, the team wants to focus all resources into making "the best game possible" ahead of Overwatch 2's October 4 Early Access.
Fans are split with the decision not to have another beta. The main dissenting argument comes from some self-identified Support players that have not seen many changes to heroes in the role so far in the move to Overwatch 2. The most aggressive changes support heroes received were the tests for Mercy's Super Jump being integrated into her move set, and a skill move for Moira that ended up being reverted because the developers weren't happy with its usage during the beta.
Fans are pointing to the future release of the Kanezaka Fox Girl hero that was teased in one of the trailers during the Xbox Game Showcase. Support players are concerned about releasing this new hero to what's intended to be the "live" version of the game without testing. Especially since Sojourn and Junker Queen, the new heroes in the other roles, have gotten show time in previous betas.
It can be presumed that the decision take the remaining time to get the game in the best condition for wide release to the public is not only to keep work focused, but to reduce crunch. Splitting the developers' focus to continuing development while making another beta build this close to the Early Access date may be too much now, especially with increased games industry focus to reduce crunch. Fans are free to voice concerns and frustrations with the lack of another free beta test period, but no one is more concerned for the game than the developers working on it to make it the best it can be.
Overwatch 2 launches in early access on October 4 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.