Overwatch 2 has now been confirmed as of BlizzCon 2019 last week, and now fans are speculating as to what that means for the future of the first game. Well the speculation is over, as Blizzard is simply making everything included in a single game. According to Blizzard Overwatch 2 will be “carrying forward all of the original game’s heroes, maps, and modes—as well as existing Overwatch players’ accomplishments and loot collections”.
Now obviously, this only applies to the multiplayer modes. This is because in addition to all of the new content in Overwatch 2, all of the content that can be carried over from the first game will be. So all of the maps and heroes will be there, as will all of those hard-won cosmetics you love. This means that pretty much all of the progress from the first game is being carried over, welcome news for hardcore fans indeed.
Overwatch 2 will of course be considered the active and in-development version. The second game will get new heroes and maps, in addition to all of the existing content. We don’t know when the new heroes like Soujorn will come to the sequel, so fans will just have to wait for more news in the future.
No word yet on when or if the various ports and versions of the first game will be retired and no longer receive updates or new content. Judging by Blizzard’s timeline on releasing Overwatch 2, it looks it will be at least a year or more before we see the new game, so you have plenty of time to enjoy it. And rest assured, it’s very likely that the original game will continue to receive balance tweaks for some time. This is because to maintain compatibility, both games have to share the same roster of maps and heroes, so we can reasonably expect some degree of support for quite a while.
Overwatch 2 is in development now, no word yet on when the new game will come out, nor on what platforms. Overwatch is out now for PC and all major consoles.
