Blizzard's 'Overwatch' Lands May 24, Open Beta Scheduled May 5-9 (Updated)
Update, 5/9/2016, 8:00am PDT: Blizzard extended the beta session by one day as a way of thanking players for trying out the game. The beta now stops on May 10 at 10am PDT.
Update, 5/6/2016, 8:03am PDT: The beta is now available for download. According to game director Jeff Kaplan, not much will change in terms of game content at launch, so what you see in the beta is what you can expect in final game (with the exception of some bug fixes, of course).
Original article:
Overwatch is due sometime this spring, but now we know that it’s coming on May 24. In addition to a new trailer, Blizzard also announced the dates for an open beta session.
The open beta is scheduled for May 5-9. Even though it’s only a preview of the final version, the beta will include all of the maps as well as the entire 21-hero roster. If you decide to pre-order the game, you and a friend will be able to start playing the beta from May 3-4. In addition, the pre-order also provides you with a Noire Widowmaker skin for the final game.
Aside from the regular version (which costs $39.99), Blizzard is offering two other variants of Overwatch on PC and consoles. The $59.99 Origins Edition also includes five additional skins, player portraits, and items for other Blizzard games such as World of Warcraft and Diablo III. The Collector’s Edition will cost you $129.99. It includes the contents of the Origins Edition as well as the game’s soundtrack, a “sourcebook” that contains illustrations and the game’s lore, and a 12.8-inch Soldier -- "76," one of the game’s heroes.
For now, Overwatch is accessible only to a handful of players. Blizzard started the second round of closed beta tests for the game last month, and the feedback from that session will help the development team make further improvements. The open beta should show a near-finished product, which should give players an idea of what to expect when it comes out at the end of May.
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Rexly Peñaflorida is a freelance writer for Tom's Hardware covering topics such as computer hardware, video games, and general technology news.
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jgbelote Been in the beta since it began. One of the best, if not the best team-based shooter to be released.Reply -
cats_Paw Wait.. Origin edition you are basically paying for in-game items, am I correct?Reply
Closed betas are always a hard beast to tackle as its quite hard to know if its a controlled beta in order to get positive reviews and limit negative ones or if its simply used as a control group.
I will consider it, but both SC2 and D3 were underwhelming for me, so Ill be cautious. -
CRITICALThinker Great game, love the hell out of the 4 hours I have played so far, but it is not worth my $50 CAD to play after the 9th unless I can find it on saleReply -
agentbb007 Been playing beta last couple days and really like it, definitely will being purchasing. Great performance with SLI too which is unusual for a beta, heck many launch titles don't use SLI.Reply -
nycalex playing beta, great game. great learning curve, from easy to very hard heroes.Reply
however, the graphics are GARBAGE. 2007 crysis has better graphics than this cartoon networrk worthy catered towards 9 year olds. -
mrv_co I pre-ordered. It's ok I suppose, but I expected to be suck in right away and that hasn't happened. It should get better as everyone develops better tactics to counter or neutralize the snipers and rocket spammers.Reply -
XaveT It installed quickly, but fails to run (appcrash). I have an open "support" thread (they aren't devoting real support people to it yet, so it's in the community forum) but we'll see if it ends up working or not. I had high hopes, but they are dwindling.Reply
Update - 11 May 0200 GMT
Well, the beta is over, and no one ever responded to my inquiry... Exactly as I expected on this. Yay for "support". This is probably not the reason I won't buy any more Blizzard products... it's reinforcement from the last 4 times.