This comes as a surprise. As Blizzard just announced, some of their games will be released on Steam for the first time. Overwatch 2 will be the first.
There comes Blizzard on a lazy Wednesday evening after all with a wild announcement around the corner As the studio recently officially announced, Blizzard games will also appear on Valve’s Steam distribution platform for the first time
Overwatch 2will be the first game to be released on Steam on 10 August According to Blizzard, the shooter is the perfect game for the Steam debut of the tradition-rich studio, which has actually preferred to rely on an in-house launcher for decades, the Battle.net.
Overwatch 2 is just the beginning
Although only Overwatch 2 has been announced so far, it is already known that more games from Blizzard will follow. The talk is of a selection of our games
, but no concrete titles are mentioned. However, the selection at Blizzard has never been particularly huge; instead, the focus is traditionally on a few but extremely strong brands. The choice of games that could follow Overwatch 2 is correspondingly small.
The most recent games from Blizzard include:
- Diablo 4
- Diablo 2: Resurrected
- Hearthstone
- WarCraft 3: Reforged
- World of Warcraft
We would put our hand in the fire that Diablo 4 in particular is a game to be reckoned with soon on Steam After all, it is the latest game from the Californians’ range and has already sold millions of copies on Battle.net
As for the opening on Steam, Blizzard president Mike Ybarra says in the official announcement:
It is our goal at Blizzard to listen to players and try to exceed their expectations in every way. Battle.net will continue to be a priority, but we understand that some players will want the option to play some of our games, starting with Overwatch 2 on August 10, on Steam. We look forward to working with Valve to make that happen.
– Mike Ybarra
Battle.net account remains compulsory
Even though you can start Overwatch 2 directly with the Steam release without an additional launcher, you will still need to set up a Battle.net account to play. The same will probably also apply to other multiplayer and cross-platform games, of which Blizzard has quite a few on offer.
Other than that, the Steam infrastructure will be used to the full. So you get trophies and can invite your friends directly to the game or join a game yourself via your friends list. Already now you can find (Overwatch 2 on Steam).
What is your opinion on this surprising move? Are you happy to see Blizzard opening up to Steam or do you not really need the studio in your library? What games would you want to see first if you had the choice, and what do you think will be the first game to follow Overwatch 2? Drop it in the comments!
