Blizzard’s next Overwatch 2 event dated for June

Blizzard Entertainment have announced the next news drop for Overwatch 2 will be taking place on June 16th. The game’s first PvP beta drew to a close today, but we should find out what’s next for the hero shooter at next month’s event. the blog post doesn’t give much away, all told, but according to the game’s official Twitter account the event will include more details about its next PvP beta. Fingers crossed for an invite this time.

Overwatch 2’s game director Aaron Keller extended a “heartfelt thank you” to everyone who took part in the first closed beta, and acknowledged some of its rough edges:

“Overwatch as a world, as a universe, is deeply personal to the team; something that we pour our time, creative energies and passion into,” he said. “It can be scary putting something that means so much to you out there for other people to look at. Especially when you know that it’s not finished and you’re asking for people’s real and valid criticisms of what you’ve made.”

Keller finished by saying that the Overwatch devs will be taking on the feedback and issues from the first closed beta and applying that to polish the experience for further betas.

Liam and Ed shot the shoot about Overwatch 2’s closed beta last week, and they chatted extensively about whether it was enough of an evolution from the original Overwatch. You can watch their thoughts in full in the video above or read them all in written form here. The general impression? It’s a familiar experience but still a good ol’ fast-paced laugh, and both can’t wait to see more of its inevitable PvE mode.

Overwatch 2 still doesn’t have a final release date just yet, but maybe we’ll hear more at the event on June 16th. Whatever happens, let’s hope they’ll have binned their weird diversity tool that was unveiled with instant and overwhelming backlash last week. Activision Blizzard also remain embroiled in several lawsuits at the moment, including by the State Of California regarding an alleged culture of workplace harassment, by an employee alleging harassment and retaliation, and by New York City regarding CEO Bobby Kotick’s fitness to negotiate the company’s impending sale to Microsoft for $69 billion. Employees have also recently led walkouts over changes to work-from-home and vaccination policies, while QA staff at subsidiary Raven Software are voting on whether to unionise.