This week, Blizzard announced that Overwatch 2 is now just Overwatch again, but it's not ready to call its seemingly failed attempt at a full-blown sequel a, well, failure.
The newly 2-less Overwatch was announced as part of a substantial rebrand ushering in a "new story-driven era" for the shooter, and it's all kicking off with a year-long narrative arc called The Reign of Talon, consisting of six seasons that'll release over the course of the year. Season 1, which comes out February 10, will add a whopping five new heroes to the roster, and a further five will be added throughout the year.
This is a very different Overwatch than what Blizzard outlined back in 2022 when it first revealed Overwatch 2, which would've shifted focus from PvP matches to a PvE co-op campaign, and yet, the studio says it needed to experience this transitional period to land where it has today. You know, every failure is a step to success and all that.
"It was a necessary period of challenge that we had to get through to get to where we are today," said Blizzard live service chief Walter Kong during a press conference attended by Eurogamer. "I don't think we could jump straight here. Just thinking back to what we experienced during those years makes me feel a bit exhausted, but it is what's allowed us to take Overwatch into the future."
Although what Blizzard's doing is essentially a soft relaunch of Overwatch, it insists the dropping of the 2 isn't tacit admission of wrongdoing on its part. Really, it's more about assuring players that they aren't about to be blindsided by another sequel and forced to migrate away from the game they're already enjoying, according to director Aaron Keller, who called Overwatch a "forever game."
"From our player's point of view, they'll tell us, 'Hey, Overwatch is in the best state it's ever been in.' And a lot of times we even hear like, 'Overwatch has finally earned the two," said Keller. "So I don't think this is us trying to admit there was a failure here, especially when we start hearing from the community that we've earned it.
"But for us what this is saying is that because Overwatch is this forever game," Keller continued, "we don't want our players worrying about when it's going to get replaced by Overwatch 3."
