“Overwatch” took the gaming world by storm when it first came out in 2016 and has kept a consistent fan base since then. Blizzard announced “Overwatch 2” at BlizzCon in 2019, and fans have been excitedly awaiting the game, however Blizzard recently announced that they will be shutting down the “Overwatch” servers in preparation for the release.  

For those who may not know, “Overwatch” is a team-based first-person shooter, players can choose from 34 different characters with unique abilities to play as. Each of these characters fall under one of three categories: tank, support, and damage; gameplay consists of attacking and defending objectives, there is a competitive mode and multiple arcade modes as well.  

“Overwatch 2” will be a free-to-play 5v5 team-based game that comes with a story mode. This is substantial change from the original game that needed to be purchased in order to be played, the team sizes were also 6v6. Since “Overwatch 2” will not only be free to play, there will also be a battle pass like system, and newer heroes will have to be purchased instead of them being automatically added to everyone’s hero roster like they were in the original game.  

The “Overwatch” servers are scheduled to go down officially in the morning on October 3, and then the game will be unplayable. Blizzard has stated that “Overwatch 2” should be live worldwide by 12pm PT on the following day. This is a big deal because in most other cases when an online sequel comes out the servers for the previous game will continue to stay live, they may just be a bit more neglected.  

Blizzard has come forward with a brief explanation for all of this, saying that keeping two different servers running would cause both games to inherently suffer because the developers’ attention would be in two places at once. For fans who played the original game there is a way to transfer data from the original game to the new game through a Battle.net account. That way people who purchased the original game will still get their money’s worth. Players of the original game will also receive the “Founders Pack” which includes some in-game cosmetics and a new hero. Everyone who logs in on the first couple of days that the game is live will receive three new heroes as well.  

Even though there will be a data transfer and original players will get to keep their stats, fans are still not happy about “Overwatch” shutting down completely. The biggest issue people have about this is that the game’s formatting is different in the sense that payload maps have been removed and the teams are different sizes. Fans are still unsure of the different game modes, and this whole situation is happening during the time that a fan favorite “Overwatch” event takes place. Fans are worried about how Blizzard will incorporate the holiday events/lore events that took place in the original game, and if they can expect them to be the same. 

There is also a huge concern about how the servers will hold up for the worldwide release. Blizzard does not have the best track record when it comes to their servers – “Overwatch” servers often had to be worked around the time certain events would be live because they could not handle the number of players that were trying to get on at once. Even though Blizzard shut down the servers in preparation for the influx of players, this is something that is more than likely to happen upon the release of “Overwatch 2”, especially because people who play during the first season will receive three of the new heroes being added to the game for free. 

Despite all this “Overwatch 2” will most likely be a success, even if the release day ends up being a bit of a mess. Fans are still excited to see how the new characters will fit in with the rest of the heroes and to see what Blizzard has instore for them with this new game.  

Article by Sophia Meek