The sequel to Blizzard’s popular hero shooter, Overwatch 2, is officially launching in early access on consoles and PC with new PvP content on October 4. During today’s Xbox and Bethesda presentation, the studio also announced that the game will feature cross-platform play and progression across Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation, and Xbox systems, as well as a new character.
The new hero is the Australian-born ruler of Junkertown, The Junker Queen. A tank with a single-barrel shotgun and an axe, The Junker Queen is Overwatch 2's second new character and the game’s 34th roster entry following Sojourn. The Junker Queen, while not tied to the Mad Max universe, gives off that energy.
In a press release following the announcement, senior global PR manager Kevin Scarpati said Overwatch 2's PvP experience is “designed to offer incredible and fresh competitive gameplay with a new, free-to-play model.” Details of what this entails were scant, but Scarpati teased an Overwatch 2 reveal event livestream in which Blizzard will talk more about “the Junker Queen, Overwatch 2’s live service model and seasonal content plan, and the upcoming phase of the game’s closed beta testing.” That broadcast is currently set for this Thursday, June 16 at 1 p.m. ET on the game’s official Twitch and YouTube channels.
Read More: First Overwatch 2 Patch Introduces Big Changes To Multiplayer Beta
Overwatch 2 has been in a closed beta for a while now. Those playing the hero shooter recently experienced a patch that nerfed Soldier 76 because he was “over tuned” and buffed Roadhog to make him “more interesting, effective, and fun” to play. While tweaking the game in this latest patch, Blizzard also said that is has a longer-term strategy in mind to address concerns around hero balance.
“Longer term, we believe the most effective way to tackle this issue is to add exciting new support heroes to the game, and that is part of our plans,” a Blizzard blog on the game explained this past May. “In the near term, our hero design team is also experimenting with significant, but shorter lead time, ideas including new and refreshed abilities for some existing support heroes.”