Blizzard has announced that Overwatch Classic will release as a limited-time event for Overwatch 2. It runs from November 12 and will see a return to the 2016 launch version of the team-based shooter.
Overwatch was originally released in 2016 as Blizzard’s answer to Team Fortress 2, allowing players to assume the role of powerful heroes with few abilities in different classes and the ability to customize their appearance via skins, all in glorious team-based first-person-shooter-style combat. Rather than create a separate sequel, Blizzard simply pushed a major update to the game and rebranded it as Overwatch 2.
It has been confirmed in an official blog post from the company that Overwatch Classic will be a recurring series of limited-time events, allowing Overwatch 2 players to “experience the original heroes, abilities, and maps in the classic 6v6 team-based action”. In fact, the devs confirmed the event will take the game back all the way to Patch 1.0 from May 2016, “which includes many abilities that haven’t been seen for years and all the chaotic gameplay from that era.” Patch 1.0 first introduced us to the first 21 heroes and 12 maps across four different game modes.
Overwatch Classic will run for three weeks beginning on November 12, 2024, and ending on December 3, 2024.