The “last day” to play the original Overwatch will be early next month
Overwatch 2 will arrive on Nintendo Switch and other platforms early next month as a free-to-play title.
As part of this, Blizzard has announced that they will be shutting down the servers of the original game. This will come just days before the second game launches on October 4. Here’s how Blizzard commercial lead Jon Spector explained it to our friends over at Eurogamer:
“So about a day before Overwatch 2 comes out, we’re taking down the Overwatch 1 servers… So that means, in practical terms, that October 2nd is actually the date. finally to get in and play Overwatch 1. And then there’s the 27-hour downtime we’re planning to get the Overwatch 2 servers up and running.”
Overwatch players will have the opportunity to pre-load the second game “a little before” at launch. Blizzard will also appear to be sharing a “launch checklist” for players, to make sure players are ready to go when Overwatch 2 launches.
The original game servers are not all that is being phased out. Blizzard is swapping out the Assault map for a new Push mode in quick play and competitive modes. This will result in the removal of Hanamura, Volskaya, and the Temple of Anubis, but players will still be able to access them in a custom game mode. Here’s what Overwatch art director Dion Rogers had to say about this (via Polygon):
“It was a tough decision for us to lose the Assault map, Hanamura is one of my personal favorites in the game, with its Japanese aesthetic and arcade that you destroy. . We plan to reuse it in some way as it has a lot to do with lore – [just like] Temple of Anubis and Volskaya. “
This happened after teams were reduced to 5v5 in Overwatch 2 (includes removing one tank from each team) and news about the second outing will skip the loot boxes in in favor of a combat pass system.
So you’re done – enjoy the original Overwatch and the maps mentioned above while you still can. Will you watch Overwatch 2 on Switch when it launches early next month? Leave a comment below.