Blizzard has announced that it will bring a “selection” of its games to Steam, starting with Overwatch 2 on August 10th. The game’s Steam page can be found here and is also available to wishlist. Beyond Overwatch 2, Blizzard says it will reveal more about other games coming to the platform “when the time is right.”
“It’s our goal at Blizzard to listen to players and try to exceed their expectations in everything we do,” said Blizzard President Mike Ybarra. “While Battle.net remains a priority for us now and into the future, we’ve heard players want the choice of Steam for a selection of our games, starting with Overwatch 2 on August 10th.
“We’re happy to work with Valve to make that happen.”
“Gamers and developers are both going to benefit from Overwatch 2 coming to Steam,” said Valve President and Co-founder Gabe Newell. “Gamers will have another platform where they can play a beloved game that utilizes the capabilities of Steam, and developers will benefit from the effects of having the talented team at Blizzard helping us evolve our supported features and functionality for Overwatch 2.”
In a post on Twitter, Overwatch 2 Executive Producer Jared Neuss expressed his excitement for the announcement, while also revealing that this collaboration had been in the works “for months”.
“We’ve been working with Valve for months to be Blizzard’s first game ever to launch on Steam.” Neuss said. “It’s been incredibly tough to keep quiet about a project that we’re all so passionate about but now we can finally talk about it openly!”
Neuss continued: “To our community: Please welcome our new Steam friends (joining us on 8/10) with open arms and your best emotes.
“To our future Steam players: Welcome to Overwatch! We hope you love our game, world and Heroes as much as we do. I’ll see you out there!”
Blizzard has also confirmed that Overwatch 2’s Steam release will coexist alongside the existing version on Battle.net, meaning that players will still have access to the game via Blizzard’s launcher. Those who choose to play on Steam will require a Battle.net account though, as Blizzard says it enables features such as cross-play.
Overwatch 2’s Steam launch will coincide with the release of the game’s sixth season, named Overwatch 2: Invasion. Season six will be Overwatch 2’s biggest seasonal update yet and is set to include the new Flashpoint mode, new support hero and story missions, as well as updates to the game’s progression system.