Rumor: Blizzard is working on Overwatch 2

Blizzard is working on a sequel to Overwatch, according to a report by Kotaku. Though nothing officially has been announced, the news comes from anonymous sources who told Kotaku that Overwatch 2 is in development and is expected to be revealed at Blizzcon 2019 in November.

There's not much more to say than that, but Kotaku's sources also said that Overwatch 2 would include a PvE mode somewhat similar to Left 4 Dead. What that actually means is anyone's guess, but considering the popularity of Overwatch's seasonal events, which frequently feature special PvE game modes, it's not all that surprising. After all, Overwatch was originally supposed to be an MMO before Blizzard canned that project and spun it out into a competitive shooter. Blizzard might be slowly inching back toward those roots by emphasizing PvE combat.

What this means for Overwatch's competitive scene is hard to say. Typically, competitive esports games like League of Legends and Rainbow Six Siege don't get sequels in order to keep the players all together under one umbrella. Speaking to the Daily Star, Ubisoft brand director Alexandre Remy recently revealed that, instead of making a sequel, Rainbow Six Siege would simply be ported to next generation consoles. "The reason behind this is we don't want to segregate our community between the different platforms. In an ideal world tomorrow, we’d love players from every platform to be able to play together. We are approaching next-gen with the same spirit."

But if Blizzard is making Overwatch 2, that means everyone will have to migrate over to the new version of the game when it is released, or stay behind with the old version. What that means for all your skins and cosmetics you've paid for and earned is hard to say.

This comes on the back of some other surprising news also covered in Kotaku's report, which states that Blizzard recently cancelled a Starcraft first-person shooter that was two years into development to focus efforts on Diablo 4 and this newly rumored Overwatch 2.

It's a lot to take in. We'll have to wait until Blizzcon later this year to find out more.

With over 7 years of experience with in-depth feature reporting, Steven's mission is to chronicle the fascinating ways that games intersect our lives. Whether it's colossal in-game wars in an MMO, or long-haul truckers who turn to games to protect them from the loneliness of the open road, Steven tries to unearth PC gaming's greatest untold stories. His love of PC gaming started extremely early. Without money to spend, he spent an entire day watching the progress bar on a 25mb download of the Heroes of Might and Magic 2 demo that he then played for at least a hundred hours. It was a good demo.