At BlizzCon 2019, Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan took to the stage to officially announce the development of Overwatch 2.
The announcement came along with a new cinematic trailer that picked up Overwatch's story following Winston's recall. The trailer shows Overwatch reuniting to battle against the Null Sector invasion and Talon.
If the contents of the trailer didn't already tip you off, Blizzard confirmed that Overwatch 2 will feature a cooperative PvE story mode. Jeff Kaplan called it a "complete story experience" that will include story missions as well as "highly replayable" hero missions, which Kaplan likened to Adventure Missions in the Diablo series. The PvE mode will include branching skill trees and customizable abilities for each hero.
In a press release, Blizzard President J Allen Brack wrote,
With Overwatch 2, we’re building the cooperative, narrative-driven game experience that players have been asking for since the original—and that we’ve wanted to make for a long time. We’re looking forward to telling the next chapter of this epic story in-game, and we’re excited to give players a whole-new kind of co-op experience built around progressing and customizing their favorite heroes—all while providing even more of everything they love about Overwatch today.
Kaplan also made a point of emphasizing that Overwatch 2 is not neglecting PvP mode or original Overwatch players. As one would expect, Overwatch 2 will include new maps, new heroes, and a new game mode called Push that featured a giant robot moving a payload-like container. Among the new heroes are the previously-teased Echo and the brand new hero Sojourn.
But, more surprisingly, all of Overwatch 2's new heroes and maps will also be playable in the original Overwatch. Furthermore, players who do make the jump from Overwatch to Overwatch 2 will retain all of their collected cosmetics. Jeff Kaplan called it "a shared multiplayer environment where no one gets left behind."
Stay tuned to TechRaptor for more BlizzCon 2019 coverage.