Overwatch: all the news about Blizzard’s hit hero shooter

3 hours ago 2

Overwatch 2 is gone — now it’s just Overwatch.
Just a few years after Overwatch 2’s free-to-play 5v5 replaced the original, Blizzard announced it’s dropping the “2.” There’s been a steady flow of other changes lately (like the return of 6v6), but the plan for this next year includes 10 new heroes (Domina, Emre, Mizuki, Anran, and Jetpack Cat arrive when S1 launches February 10th), new maps, menu updates, a Conquest meta event, Reign of Talon narrative arc, and more.
Overwatch MOBA?
Today, Blizzard released an initial gameplay trailer for the Stadium mode it’s adding to Overwatch 2 soon, along with more details in a blog post. Like many other battlers before it, and Apex Legends’ now-discarded Arenas, it puts the game’s characters (17 of them to start) into a 5v5, multi-round best-of-seven format, with the ability to earn and swap out special abilities as the rounds progress.
It also offers a third-person perspective option like Marvel Rivals, and will launch on April 22nd.
Overwatch 2 is adding a CS:GO-style mode and bringing back loot boxes
Image: Blizzard
Overwatch 2 is getting quite the shakeup in 2025 as it faces growing competition from other online shooters. It starts with the season 15 update that’s coming on February 18th that’ll tease a new hero and introduce an in-game Perks system for existing ones, plus the return of the 6v6 competitive queues Blizzard tested late last year. There’s also the return of loot boxes and then, in April, a Counterstrike-like mode, two new characters, and a revamped ranked queue that lets you ban heroes and vote on maps.
Reintroducing loot boxes may be a polarizing move, as games that implement them have received backlash over the years for their predatory nature. Blizzard removed them from Overwatch a few years ago in favor of an in-game shop when it restructured its monetization model after going free-to-play. The company will responsibly publicize drop rates and is guaranteeing that you’ll receive an item of “Rare” rarity or better in each box, plus a guaranteed “Epic” after opening five and a “Legendary” after opening 20. We’re not sure whether you’ll still be able to purchase cosmetics directly from a rotating in-game shop, but you can earn loot boxes as part of weekly and event rewards, and you can get up to three guaranteed Legendary loot boxes in each seasonal battle pass.
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Marvel Rivals takes a page from Rocket League (and Overwatch).
Marvel Rivals already catered directly to existing Overwatch fans with its 6v6 team hero shooter gameplay. Now, its Spring Festival event will follow the season one launch with a 3v3 Rocket League-style limited-time mode that looks just like Overwatch’s Lucioball.
Naturally, there are various unlockables and some new costumes that will become available after the spring event starts on January 23rd at 4AM ET.
For a limited time, Overwatch returns to its roots.
After abandoning the 6v6 format years ago, the latest Overwatch 2 patch will test its return. From now until January 6th, you can play Overwatch as it was originally conceived with two tanks, two damage dealers, and two healers on each team. Six vs. six matches will be unranked and certain heroes have had their abilities tweaked to better suit the new but also old format.
Overwatch 2 and Apex Legends follow Fortnite by going back to the beginning.
Last year’s Fortnite OG event has attracted a new round of free-to-play copycats.
Apex Legends responded to revenue that EA execs said “fell short of expectations” with a “Launch Royale” revisiting the original map and characters until November 19th. And now, Blizzard announced Overwatch Classic is coming tomorrow with 6v6, no-limits gameplay like Overwatch had at its very beginning.
Overwatch 2 opens the door to a return for 6v6
A couple of years into the Overwatch 2 experience, player angst has reached a point where the people making the game are considering bringing the old 12-person matches back. Today’s blog post from the developers at Blizzard says that, finally, “we’re exploring how we can test different forms of 6v6 in the game to gauge the results.”
Game director Aaron Keller also notes that issues like hero balancing, game performance, and what might happen to queue times if players have a choice between the two formats are questions the team needs to answer but is at least ready to start considering.
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Overwatch 2 targets console cheaters using XIM, ReaSnow, and Cronus devices.
Like Rainbow Six Siege, Call of Duty, and Destiny 2, the developers of Overwatch 2 are going after players who use “unapproved peripherals” to combine the precision of mouse and keyboard controls with the aim assist granted to controller players.
Over the next few weeks, there will be permanent account bans against players who are the most severe abusers of unapproved peripherals. These actions will be targeted towards high-ranked players who have been reported by others and who our data clearly shows are using an unapproved peripheral.
April Fools’ 2024: Overwatch 2 “Really, really balanced.”
It’s April Fools’ Day, so the googly eyes are back in Overwatch 2, complete with other extremely balanced adjustments (Lifeweaver’s platform goes way, way up now, and Mercy is armed and dangerous), plus some special challenges and sprays that players can earn.
Overwatch 2 unlocks all of its heroes
Overwatch 2 heroes will no longer need to be unlocked through Battle Pass or via purchase, taking some of the grind out of the now free-to-play team FPS. Starting in Season 10, players will be able to unlock all existing and future heroes for free. This will include Venture, the latest hero joining Overwatch’s roster next season.
New players to the game will still need to complete the first-time user experience. Only when novice players have unlocked the heroes from the first Overwatch roster will all Overwatch 2 heroes then be at their disposal, , as game director Aaron Keller explains in the latest Developer’s Update video.
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Overwatch 2 and Apex Legends hit the reset button.
Over the next couple of hours, the two games I play the most are releasing massive updates, with changes to ranked tier systems, character abilities, and either 120Hz refresh rates or new bullet sizes.
With games like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Spider-Man 2 atop the sales charts, these live service games need something new to keep going — and hopefully, with these changes they find it.
Image: EA / Blizzard
Competitive Overwatch won’t end with the League
Blizzard / Xbox
The day Overwatch League fans have braced for has finally come. Yesterday, OverActive Media, parent company for the Toronto Defiant, confirmed its exit from the Overwatch League. The company announced that as a part of its agreement with Activision Blizzard, it would receive a $6 million termination fee, thereby ending all its commitments to the League. This confirms that a majority of teams have met and voted to terminate their agreements with the League, with each team owner receiving a termination fee. The result is that the Overwatch League is finally ending after six seasons.
“We are transitioning from the Overwatch League and evolving competitive Overwatch in a new direction,” said John Nomis, associate PR manager for the Overwatch League, in a statement to The Verge. “We are grateful to everyone who made OWL possible and remain focused on building our vision of a revitalized esports program. We are excited to share details with you all in the near future.”
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Blizzard says it’s building ‘revitalized’ Overwatch esports after OWL season ends
Image: Sebastien Martin-Schultz / Blizzard
Hours after the Florida Mayhem were crowned the 2023 Overwatch League Grand Champions, the Overwatch League itself has likely come to its end. In a post on X (formerly Twitter) this morning, Blizzard said that it’s working on “building our vision of a revitalized esports program.”
It is no secret that the league has been in dire straits. Over the last few years, there were numerous reports that the league was struggling financially. Advertisers had pulled out after stories of sexual harassment and abuse at Blizzard broke in 2021. Team organizations were struggling to pay franchising fees, strained by the depressed economic conditions facilitated by the covid-19 pandemic. One team, the Chengdu Hunters, disbanded entirely in the middle of the 2023 season. And finally, after failing to renegotiate a deal with its Chinese publishing partner, NetEase, some Blizzard games went offline in China — one of Overwatch’s biggest markets — and remain offline to this day.
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Overwatch 2 needs a win — the Invasion event, at best, is a draw
Image: Blizzard
Overwatch 2’s Invasion event, which goes live today, is the game’s biggest update since penciling in the “2” in October of last year. The event, which coincides with season 6 of the battle pass, offers a new hero, a new game mode, and, perhaps most importantly, new story missions that, for the first time, advance Overwatch’s story. And while I appreciate and enjoy all the new coming to Overwatch 2, I can’t shake the feeling that this all feels too little and too late.
Flashpoint is Overwatch 2’s newest game mode. Teams fight to control one of five points spread out equally on maps that are the largest in the game. Each point unlocks sequentially, and once a team reaches 100 percent control, the next point unlocks. The first team to three points wins.
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Illari illuminates the battlefield as Overwatch 2’s newest support hero.
Overwatch 2’s Invasion event will not only introduce fans to the new story missions and a new game mode, but it’ll also introduce us to a new hero. Meet Illari. She was teased back in June, and now, with a new trailer released today for Overwatch 2 season six, fans can get a first look at the new support hero.
Fighting evil by moonlight, eating bread by daylight.
Never running from a mech fight, she is the one named Sou-o-journ. And now her very first story cinematic can be viewed on YouTube after its exclusive launch in the Overwatch 2 game client.
And his name is JOHN CENA! *do do-do doooo*
In the last week, popular Twitch streamers, including Shroud and Scump, have had their Overwatch 2 streams “hijacked” by a mysterious force known only as The Enigma. Today, Blizzard revealed that The Enigma is none other than John Cena promoting Overwatch 2’s new story missions that drop with the Invasion event on August 10th.
Overwatch 2’s newest cinematic is the next big step in the game’s journey
Image: Blizzard
From the first reveal of her character in a small thumbnail portrait in 2016 to her official debut in Overwatch 2 some six years later, Vivian Chase, call sign Sojourn, has been on a journey. Today, that long journey takes a new direction as Blizzard reveals her first animated short, bringing newfound depth to her character and to the Overwatch franchise overall.
In an exclusive interview with The Verge, Sojourn’s creators talk about her new cinematic and her place at the center of Overwatch 2’s story.
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Overwatch 2’s new story missions will be paywalled
Image: Blizzard
You’re gonna have to pay to play Overwatch 2’s new story missions.
During Xbox’s Summer Game Fest presentation, we got a tease of Overwatch 2’s story missions. Though the content won’t be arriving until August 6th, a Game Informer story and a developer blog shared details about the new story missions, including one big, unexpected twist: that unlike any new game mode or seasonal event that’s launched after Overwatch 2 went free-to-play, these story missions would not be free.
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Overwatch 2 celebrates its first in-game Pride event
Image: Blizzard
Overwatch 2 will celebrate its first-ever Pride event. Starting June 1st, the Midtown map will be festooned with Pride flags, the lesbian hero Tracer will have a picture of her and her partner added to the barracks in the Watchpoint: Gibraltar map, and players will get a host of icons and name cards reflect the breadth of queer identities and the Overwatch heroes who share them. The Verge had the opportunity to speak with the developers about this new event, gaining insight into what went into creating this event and what this means for Overwatch’s LGBTQ+ fans and characters.
“We want it to feel like the game is reflecting what’s happening in the real world. We do it for Halloween. We do it for Lunar New Year, too,” said game director Aaron Keller during the interview. “It’s important to carry this forward for Pride as well.”
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Overwatch 2’s director explains why its big PvE mode was canceled
Image: Blizzard
Overwatch 2’s ambitious hero mode scrapped to focus on live game
Blizzard
Overwatch 2’s long-awaited hero missions PvE mode is no more. In a developer livestream, game director Aaron Keller said that the team is canceling the game’s PvE-based hero missions in favor of continuing on with seasonal, story-focused events.
When Blizzard first announced Overwatch 2, the developers teased that the game would have two PvE campaign modes adjacent to its traditional competitive modes.
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The weaver is live.
Lifeweaver, Overwatch 2’s latest support hero is live. The flower powered hero comes with the arrival of season 4 which features a fun space opera theme, highlighting once again that the Overwatch 2 skin department does not miss.
Overwatch 2 season 4 trailer got me right in the feels
Image: Blizzard Entertainment
I haven’t gotten emotional over an Overwatch trailer since the Overwatch 2 launch trailer. But the trailer for season 4 finally got me. Beyond teasing the season’s new skins, which feature a galactic space pirate theme, and the release of the newest hero Liveweaver, the season 4 trailer feels like it’s Overwatch returning to its narrative roots of hope, optimism, and inclusion.
Overwatch, since inception, has been about an idealistic set of cosmopolitan heroes coming together to save a world in crisis. That message is in the game’s DNA with its bright colors, futuristic aesthetic, and Tracer’s signature line, “Cheers, love, the cavalry’s here.” I wouldn’t say Overwatch 2 has gotten away from that message, but it’s been de-emphasized in favor of the necessities that come with being a product that’s meant to make money. We get the flashy skins, the balance updates, the events, and all the various and sundry things designed to keep players engaged and spending. And make no mistake, that’s present in today’s trailer and accompanying blog highlighting all the new stuff coming in season 4. (My favorite of which is the new PvP event that pits two space-faring factions against each other in a war for the fate of the galaxy.)
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Overwatch 2’s new hero Lifeweaver puts down roots in season 4
Blizzard
Overwatch 2 has been releasing new heroes at a pretty good clip, and with the pending arrival of season 4 comes the latest hero: Lifeweaver. Lifeweaver’s addition to the game had been teased by the Overwatch developers in the last few weeks, with them calling the new hero “cute,” leading some in the Overwatch community to speculate that we’d be getting another animal-based hero like the much-desired “jetpack cat.”
But thanks to an unfortunate leak and the slow drip of information ahead of his official launch, we now know the developers should have used “sexy” instead of “cute” because Lifeweaver is a stone-cold fox.
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