Blizzard Entertainment, the developer behind the hugely anticipated online first person shooter Overwatch, has just announced in a blog post that the game will be available for select players in the U.S. as part of their first closed beta test on October 27th. The company hopes to collect as much feedback as they can before they release the game.
The beta will be done in two phases. The first phase of the beta will start on October 27 and will be available to only a small number of testers, only occasionally adding more people to account for inactive players that will no doubt pop up from time to time.
The second phase will be a series of open beta weekend tests to test server infrastructure and hardware. The available numbers of heroes will be restricted during the open beta weekends. The first public beta weekend will start some time after Blizzcon (6-7 November).
The beta will first become available in the Americas, after which they will start working on access for Europa and Asia.
People who have been selected to participate in the test will be notified via email. Good news if you've been sleeping on the job: You can still sign up for the beta by logging into your Battle.net account. Remember that you need a Battle.net account plus the Battle.net app in order to play the game. Unfortunately, Mac users will have to exercise a little more patience. The beta will only be available to people playing on Windows.
Quick Take
I'm very much looking forward to trying this one out. The little bits of gameplay I have seen on their official YouTube channel have definitely piqued my interest. I wonder how Blizzard's first attempt at making a competitive first person shooter will work out for them. Can't wait until the European beta!
