Fans have been begging for an update on Overwatch 2 for the past two years. Concrete information is scarce, and with delay upon delay announced amid company scandals, it seemed at times that the game might be lost to bad PR and bad management. The director of the game Aaron Keller has now come forward to announce that testing on the sequel is now in progress, and a closed alpha is coming in late April.
“Daily playtests and feedback have given us confidence that we’re creating something that you’re going to love,” Keller says in the new video.
“I want to thank our players for your continued support. We recognize that we haven’t communicated well, haven’t kept you up to date and, honestly, we’ve let you down when it comes to developing Overwatch content.”
The alpha will be open to both Blizzard employees and Overwatch league professionals. The update also noted that it would separate the PvE element from traditional multiplayer.
“Based on your feedback we’ve taken some time to rethink Overwatch 2, with the singular goal of making sure it’s a living game, serving our players with exciting content on a regular basis. Following that first beta test, we are planning additional public PvP beta testing later in the year, which will include new features, new maps, and yes, new heroes,” Keller said.
Overwatch 2 was unveiled in 2019. New game modes and heroes were teased, and it was announced that those who already own the original title would be getting the game for free. A launch date wasn’t announced at the time, and in November 2021, Blizzard pushed the game back to a 2023 launch window along with Diablo 4. In early February 2022, fans spotted an Overwatch 2 client which may have teased this new closed beta.
Overwatch was released on May 24, 2016 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. A Nintendo Switch port was released in October 2019, and an optimized performance patch for the Xbox Series X/S was released in March 2021.