The beta for Blizzard’s competitive, team-based shooter Overwatch is slated to begin Oct. 27, the developer announced today.
Overwatch’s closed beta will first be available in the Americas region. A small amount of testers will be able to test out Overwatch initially, with more and more testers added throughout the beta. Following the release in the Americas region, Europe will follow afterwards, and then the Asia region after that. No specific dates were given for the Europe or Asia regions.
Additionally, Blizzard will also hold what they call “Beta Test Weekends,” concentrated periods of time where even more players will have access to the closed beta in order for Blizzard to stress test the limits of the servers running the beta. The first Beta Test Weekend will begin shortly after BlizzCon ends (Nov. 7) and will be open to multiple worldwide regions.
While the final game will be available on Windows and Mac, the Overwatch beta will be exclusive to Windows users and accessible through the Battle.net desktop client. Those that end up being selected for the beta will receive an email with instructions on how to proceed. In order to be considered for a beta invitation, users will need to opt-in to the beta from their Battle.net account.
In other Overwatch news, Blizzard has said that the game will not support private servers, but will include support for dedicated servers on Blizzard’s end, as well as custom games and a spectator mode.