Overwatch 2 and other Blizzard games are headed to Steam
The team shooter will land on Valve’s PC behemoth next month
Blizzard is going to offer its digital PC games outside of its Battle.net launcher for the first time, starting next month with Overwatch 2 - though you’ll still need to sign in through Battle.net to play.
The release of Overwatch 2 on Steam on August 10th will mark the first time that Blizzard has stepped outside of its veteran launcher, which was launched in late 1996 ahead of the first Diablo. As well as the likes of StarCraft, World of Warcraft and Hearthstone, Battle.net has since become home to Activision games including Call of Duty as part of the ActiBlizz merger in 2008.
Blizzard said the Steam release of Overwatch 2 and what the studio merely teased as “a selection of our games” - without naming any other titles, or when we might see them - wouldn’t see it pull away from its own platform in any way, simply expand onto an additional launcher.
“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,” said Blizz president Mike Ybarra.
Its announcement added that “gaming is no longer just for specific communities as it was when Battle.net launched over two decades ago”, casting the wider availability on Steam as an effort to make it easier for players to pick up its games where they wanted.
Of course, Overwatch 2’s Steam launch on August 10th puts it in line with the release of the free-to-play shooter sequel’s major Invasion update, which adds story missions, a new competitive mode, two maps, an extra hero and a bunch of other stuff - but not for free, mind.
Although you’ll be able to play Overwatch 2 through Steam, you won’t be able to dodge Battle.net entirely - you’ll still need to sign in with a Battle.net account to play, allowing for cross-platform multiplayer between the two services and other such things. You will gain the ability to use your Steam friends list and gain Steam achievements, though. Folks who are happy with Battle.net won’t see any changes.
Blizzard said it’ll announce the other games we might see on Steam “when the time is right”.