Overwatch's Competitive mode will be back this month (updated)

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Jeff Kaplan says the updated mode is already being played internally.

Update: Blizzard corrected itself this morning, saying that competitive mode will be coming later this month, not July.

Previously, tweets from the official Overwatch account (spotted by Eurogamer) reveal that Competitive mode has slipped into mid-to-late July.
 

Original: The decision to cut competitive play from the Overwatch open beta, and the full release of the game, was about as last-minute as it gets. But it sounds like it won't be gone for long: Game Director Jeff Kaplan said in a Q&A video posted today on Facebook that he hopes to have to have the mode back next month. 

“Competitive mode is the current focus of the Overwatch team, and it's the most important thing for us to add to the game right now,” Kaplan says in the video, beginning at around the 9:00 mark.   

“Our first big content update for Overwatch will be Competitive mode. I don't want to promise an exact date, because I'm sure whatever date I say right now will be wrong," he continues. "My rough commitment, or 'not-commitment,' would be sometime toward the end of June—middle to end of June. We want to have Competitive mode in. We already have it in internally, in fact we were playing it this weekend and we're starting to get a feel for it.” 

Kaplan said changes to Competitive mode will include lengthened seasons, which will probably run for around three months instead of the one month originally planned, and a reduction in the frequency of Sudden Death. More information will be revealed as Competitive mode comes closer to re-launch; Overwatch, don't forget, will be live world-wide just over an hour from now.

Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.