Precisely what Overwatch 2 has been a question on the lips of fans since its announcement. It presents itself as a sequel, but the way Blizzard has talked about it in the past made it sound more like a glorified game update. We now know that the hero shooter will finally arrive soon, now a blurry detail has been clarified. When it launches, it will replace the original wholesale Overwatch.
Speaking during a Reddit AMA, Aaron Keller, director of Overwatch 2, confirmed this: “When OW2 launches on October 4, it will be a replacement for the current live service,” he says. This means that the original Overwatch will not be able to be played after October 4, so players will have to upgrade to the sequel. Fortunately, it’s free to play, so at least there’s no barrier to entering.
As IGN pointed out, the original idea was that players in both games could play together simultaneously, but it seems that the fundamental changes in the game have put a brake on this. Overwatch 2 includes 5-on-5 matches, while the first game was 6-on-6, so the two are no longer compatible. Forcing everyone into the sequel would mean that the user base will stay together.
It is a very interesting situation; we cannot recall another example of a game completely replacing its predecessor in this way.
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