After the initial reveal of Overwatch 2 at BlizzCon in 2019, not much has been revealed in regard to the release date of the highly-anticipated sequel. But a recent update to Battle.net may hint at some sort of playable version of Overwatch 2 in the near future.
Last night, a patch pushed to the Battle.net launcher included a new Overwatch development build labeled “2.0,” indicating that testing for the upcoming sequel may finally be underway. This season of the Overwatch League, which is set to begin in April, has been confirmed to be played on a build of Overwatch 2. But before this Battle.net patch dropped, there was no indication of a playable version being available for the pros to use. It’s still unclear what exactly this patch entails for the immediate future.
The last time that fans received any updates regarding Overwatch 2’s gameplay was during the 2021 OWL grand finals, where players from various teams had the opportunity to play on the new maps with a few of the updated heroes. Since then, recent controversies regarding Activision Blizzard have raised many questions regarding the development of the game. An investor meeting in November revealed that the title had once again been delayed, and since then, no further updates have been given.
Microsoft recently purchased Activision Blizzard for $68 billion. It’s expected that Overwatch 2, as well as other previously-announced Blizzard titles, will release on all platforms at some point in the future. But it’s unclear when the sequel will be released or what this patch to Battle.net means for the immediate future of the franchise.
The upcoming season of the OWL is expected to begin in April on an early build of Overwatch 2. No information on this build has been revealed.
