Overwatch Opens To "A Lot More Players" This Weekend

I know, I know: you're eager to try Overwatch [official site] for yourself, but you're barely able to keep up with all the (actually finished) games that came out in November. Woe is you. But dry those tears.

On Friday Blizzard will launch Overwatch into its first Beta Test Weekend, opening the game to "a lot more players" in the process.

"During the Beta Test Weekend, all players (including those currently in the Closed Beta) will have access to the full roster of 21 heroes and a limited selection of maps: Hanamura, King’s Row, and Watchpoint: Gibraltar.

Since this is a stress test, we're primarily interested in your technical feedback, like how Overwatch runs on your system, your experience with the beta servers, critical bug reports, and other game-impacting problems. One of our goals is to push our hardware to the limit, so don't be surprised if you experience performance issues or run into unexpected downtime—that’s all part of the process."

Hopefully you've already read Pip's Overwatch beta thoughts and dumped your name into Blizzard's magical beta hat. If not, you can do so here. Blizzard says email invites will start arriving on Thursday, giving you time to preload before the beta kicks off Friday at 9AM Pacific. Then you either play until your eyes burn out of your skull or until Monday, November 23 at 9AM Pacific. Whichever comes first.