Blizzard confirms the Overwatch season four end date. The current competitive season of Blizzard's hugely popular multiplayer shooter began in March and has seen players test their mettle against one another.

In a post on the company's official forum, Overwatch principal designer Scott Mercer reveals that the season four of competitive play will end on May 29 at 0:00 UTC (Universal Time Coordinated). This is May 28 at 5PM for those in Pacific Daylight Time and May 28 at 8PM for those in the Eastern timezone.

Mercer also says that Blizzard will "indeed" be adding a countdown to the season's end in an upcoming patch. And although the designer didn't reveal when season five of Overwatch competitive play would be beginning, Mercer does say that "We decided to have a shorter amount of "offseason" time without competitive play as compared to previous seasons."

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Following Mercer's comments, some fans have expressed a bit of confusion about what they should expect in the interim. A massive Overwatch anniversary event is expected to take place between the fourth and fifth seasons of competitive play, with many players excited to celebrate a year since the popular multiplayer game was released on PC and consoles. The event is reportedly set to include lots of new skins and other new cosmetic items for all of the game's playable characters.

The event may also include the release of new maps, but this has not been totally confirmed. Members of the Overwatch development team have been teasing new maps – for competitive play and special game modes – with some of these maps said to be well into development.

That's good news for those who are eager for new gameplay content but if there really is going to be a shorter time than ever between competitive seasons, as Mercer promises, then this doesn't give Blizzard a great amount of time to push the maps to the PTR. Here, these maps will then need to be tested, fans will need to provide feedback and Blizzard will have to fix any bugs and issues and before pushing it out to competitive players.

How Blizzard will make sure that everything runs smoothly despite the quick turnaround is yet to be seen. But for now, Overwatch players will just be glad that they have a set date for the end of the fourth season.

Source: Blizzard

Overwatch is available for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.