Earlier today, Blizzard Entertainment announced they’re bringing Overwatch 2 over to Steam as the first of many Blizzard games to be launched on the platform. In an article on Blizzard’s official website, the company explained this decision was motivated by the evolution of the gaming industry and their online platform Battle.net, which makes Blizzard titles available to the PC community. While Blizzard has updated Battle.net with the latest technologies and capabilities, they wanted to expand their audience outside their original platform.
On this matter, Blizzard President Mike Ybarra said, “It’s our goal at Blizzard to listen to players and try to exceed their expectations in everything we do. While Battle.net remains a priority for us now and into the future, we’ve heard players want the choice of Steam for a selection of our games, starting with Overwatch 2 on August 10th. We’re happy to work with Valve to make that happen.”
Valve President Gabe Newell is also eager about Overwatch 2‘s Steam release. He commented, “Gamers and developers are both going to benefit from Overwatch 2 coming to Steam. Gamers will have another platform where they can play a beloved game that utilizes the capabilities of Steam, and developers will benefit from the effects of having the talented team at Blizzard helping us evolve our supported features and functionality for Overwatch 2.”
Overwatch 2‘s Steam release will not phase out Battle.net; anyone currently accessing the game through Battle.net can still play it without any changes. However, Steam players will need to connect Overwatch 2 to a Battle.net account to allow cross-platform play and other features. While playing Overwatch 2, players can use Steam features like Steam achievements, Steam friends list, and the ability to invite friends to play in-game. As for the other Blizzard games coming to Steam, they will be revealed at a later date.
Overwatch 2 will coming to Steam on August 10th. The game is currently available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, and Nintendo Switch.