New Overwatch 2 accounts have to unlock old heroes, too

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The old hero roster is free, but you'll have to unlock them if you never played the original Overwatch.

Overwatch 2's Sombra looks toward camera with arms crossed
(Image credit: Blizzard)

As part of Overwatch's transition into a free-to-play game with its sequel, Overwatch 2 will have restrictions on new players to help prevent cheating and "disruptive players," Blizzard wrote in a blog post today. Most notably, new accounts, which have never played the original game before, will have to earn access to most of its game modes and heroes.

Fresh accounts that start with Overwatch 2 will have "access to a limited set of game modes, heroes, and some other restrictions to onboard them more gradually," Blizzard wrote. The first phase of the "First Time User Experience" will unlock game modes and in-game chats and then you'll unlock the original cast of Overwatch heroes "over the course of approximately 100 matches."

To be clear, this first-time player progression seems to be separate from Overwatch 2's upcoming battle pass, which will also ask players to grind through 55 levels to unlock a new hero (or pay $10 to get them immediately). 

Blizzard said "most" game mode restrictions are lifted if you play in a group, but the game's ranked competitive mode will be locked until you've won 50 Quick Play matches first—previously you had to hit level 25.

The company also announced that it will increase its efforts to find "disruptive behavior" through voice chat transcriptions, much like Riot does with Valorant. Blizzard will convert the reported audio to text and run it through its "chat review tools," that include machine learning, and determine if it's actionable. It will then delete the text file "no later than 30 days after the audio transcription." Voice chat data from matches isn't stored very long, so Blizzard urges you to report players as soon as you can.

Tyler Colp

Tyler has covered videogames and PC hardware for 15 years. He regularly spends time playing and reporting on games like Diablo 4, Elden Ring, Overwatch 2, and Final Fantasy 14. While his specialty is in action RPGs and MMOs, he's driven to cover all sorts of games whether they're broken, beautiful, or bizarre.