In Overwatch 2, players will take on the roles of the world’s heroes in cooperative missions that challenge them to team up, power up, and stand together against an overwhelming outbreak of threats around the globe. Players will also battle each other in the next evolution of competitive Overwatch play, which carries forward existing players’ accomplishments and loot collections and features the current complete Overwatch roster, a new generation of heroes, new internationally recognizable maps that widen the scope of the world, a new Push map type, and more.

In the sequel’s action-packed cooperative Story Missions, players will experience the advent of a new Overwatch as Winston, Tracer, and other members of the original Overwatch join forces with a new generation of heroes. Players will take an active role in the Overwatch saga as a new global crisis unfolds through a series of intense, high-stakes four-player missions. As the story progresses, players will team up as different sets of heroes and fight to defend the world from the omnic forces of Null Sector, uncover the motives behind the robotic armies’ attacks, and come face-to-face with rising new threats around the globe.

The battle continues in Hero Missions, where the Overwatch team will be called upon to go beyond their limits as they deploy across the planet, defending cities against robot invasions, taking on elite Talon agents, and battling the villainous forces laying siege to the world. In this highly replayable mode, players can level up their favorite heroes and earn powerful customization options that supercharge their abilities in co-op play—such as altering Reinhardt’s Fire Strike to ignite nearby enemies or modifying Tracer’s Pulse Bomb to cause a devastating chain reaction—granting the extra edge they need against the overwhelming odds.

The first Overwatch 2 PvP Beta will begin on April 26, 2022 for PC in all regions.

This closed beta will include a larger group of testers who will be asked to provide gameplay feedback. The goal for this phase is to test new features, content, and systems before shifting to stress-testing the servers with a wider player base in future Beta tests.  Players will be granted access in phases, and we will add more and more players as we progress through the upcoming beta phases.

Here are the major items you can expect to see from the first beta:  

• New Damage Hero: Sojourn  
• New Game Mode: Push  
• 5v5 Multiplayer  
• Hero Reworks (Orisa, Doomfist, Bastion, and Sombra
• 4 Maps
• New Ping system

You can sign up to request access to the Overwatch 2 PvP Beta 1 now on PlayOverwatch.com.

Blizzard are changing the release strategy by decoupling Overwatch 2’s PvP and PvE experiences from one another to get new PvP content into your hands sooner, while they continue to work on PvE.

Below are the minimum system requirements for the Overwatch 2 PvP Beta on Windows. Due to potential programming changes, the minimum system requirements for the Overwatch 2 PvP Beta may change before and after launch. 

	Minimum Requirements	Recommended Specifications
Operating System	Windows 7 / Windows 8 / Windows 10 64-bit (latest Service Pack)	Windows 10 64-bit (latest Service Pack)
Processor	Intel Core i3 or AMD Phenom X3 8650	Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 5
Video	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 600 series, AMD Radeon HD 7000 series	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD R9 380
Memory	6 GB RAM	8 GB RAM
Storage	50 GB available hard drive space
Internet	Broadband internet connection
Media	None for the recommended digital installation
Resolution	1024 x 768 minimum display resolution

Note: SLI/Crossfire will no longer be supported by the Overwatch 2 PvP Beta

Supported Video Cards

NVIDIA	AMD/ATI	INTEL
GeForce 8600 GT+ series	Radeon HD 4650+ series	HD Graphics 3000
GeForce 9500 GT+ series	Radeon HD 5000 series	HD Graphics 4000
GeForce 120+ series	Radeon HD 6000 series	HD Graphics 4200/4400/4600
GeForce GTX 220+ series	Radeon HD 7000 series	HD Graphics 5000 series
GeForce GT 315+ series	Radeon HD 8000 series	HD Graphics 6000 series
GeForce GTX 420+ series	Radeon R5/R7/R9 200 series	HD Graphics 500 series
GeForce GTX 510+ series	Radeon R5/R7/R9 300 series	HD Graphics 600 series
GeForce GTX 600 series	Radeon R9 Fury/Nano series	UHD Graphics 600 series
GeForce GTX 700 series	Radeon Pro Duo
GeForce GTX 800M series	Radeon RX 400 series
GeForce GTX 900 series	Radeon RX 500 series
GeForce GTX 10 series	Radeon RX Vega series
GeForce GTX 16 series	Radeon VII series
Volta series	Radeon RX 5000 series
GeForce RTX 20 series
GeForce RTX 30 series

To help realize these missions, the sequel also introduces significant engine upgrades that support larger maps for co-op (PvE) play, as well as the wide variety of new enemies and factions that players will encounter on their missions. The game also introduces visual enhancements designed to bring players’ favorite heroes—and their new looks for Overwatch 2—to life in greater detail.

Overwatch 2 also represents the beginning of a new era for the series’ world-renowned competitive 6v6 play. In addition to carrying forward all of the original game’s heroes, maps, and modes—as well as existing Overwatch players’ accomplishments and loot collections—the sequel adds multiple new playable heroes to the ever-growing roster; widens the scope of the world with even more maps and locations; and adds a new Push map type, in which two teams compete to make a robot (that happens to be pretty good at pushing things) push the map’s objective to their opponent’s side.

Overwatch 2 also renews Blizzard’s commitment to continue supporting the existing Overwatch community. Current Overwatch players will battle side-by-side with Overwatch 2 players in PvP multiplayer. In addition, current Overwatch players will be able to play Overwatch 2 heroes and maps, ensuring the core PvP experience remains dynamic and vital for today’s community in the Overwatch 2 era.

More details on Blizzard’s plans, including some of the new heroes joining the fray, will be announced in the future as development continues.