SinceOverwatchlaunched, fans have discussed the possibility of heroes being removed from the roster. After all, certain characters likeDamage hero Bastionhave proven to be hugely controversial, while other characters, like Tank hero Reinhardt, are canonically old, so it might make sense story-wise for them to retire or pass the torch on to another hero. There has been some speculation that hero retirements could come withOverwatch 2, but game director Jeff Kaplan has shut down those rumors.
In a recent interview with GameSpot, Kaplan discussedOverwatch 2, confirming that the game will not remove any existing heroes from the roster. Instead, fans can expectOverwatch 2to include all of the existing characters from the first game, plus new characters. It’s unclear how many new heroes will launch alongsideOverwatch 2whenever it’s available, but fans do know of at least one new playable hero.
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At BlizzCon 2019, Blizzard revealednewOverwatch 2hero Sojourn, who is expected to be available for the game as soon as it launches.Overwatchhas typically added one new hero at a time so as to not upset the meta too much, but it’s possible thatOverwatch 2will launch with more than one new hero whenever it’s available.
Unfortunately, it’s unclear exactly whenOverwatch 2will be available for fans. What is clear is that theOverwatch 2release date is not 2021, so sometime in 2022 is the earliest that the hero shooter sequel will be available. However, it’s possible that there will besomeOverwatch 2beta teststhat give fans of the game the chance to try it out ahead of launch, though specifics have yet to be announced by Kaplan or anyone else at Blizzard.
While Blizzard will not be removing any heroes from theOverwatch 2roster, that doesn’t mean that characters won’t get written off in the story. Unlike the first game,Overwatch 2has a dedicated story mode, and it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for characters to be killed off in the story mode. Something like that happening has been discussed in the past, though it’s unclear if Blizzard will make any drastic moves like that.
As it stands, not much is known about theOverwatch 2story mode, but hopefully more concrete details come throughout the year. Blizzard has previously confirmed thatOverwatch 2updates will be more frequentnow that BlizzCon 2021 is over, so fans should have plenty of new details to look forward to between now and whenever the game launches.
Overwatch 2is in development for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
