Overwatch 2 will be making a significant change to Blizzard's hero shooter, reducing the number of playable characters on any given team from six heroes to five, making it so there are two DPS, two Support, and one Tank hero in every match. As one might imagine, a change this drastic is going to require Blizzard to rework its Tank heroes to make them more viable, but other heroes will be getting some tweaks as well.
An Overwatch fan recently took to the Blizzard forums to discuss their concerns about flankers and heroes that have more mobility than others, as only having one Tank makes it seem like they will be more difficult to counter. A Blizzard community manager responded to the thread, saying that this exact concern in Overwatch 2 is something that the developers have been "paying close attention to" while they test the game.
The Blizzard community manager went as far as to point out three heroes that will need rebalanced or nerfed when Overwatch 2 launches: Doomfist, Wrecking Ball, and Tracer. This will be necessary so that they aren't overpowered in Overwatch 2's new meta, as it does seem like it would make characters like that especially viable. Of course, with Wrecking Ball being a Tank hero, he was going to be due for some changes anyway, though the possibility of a Tank getting nerfed instead of buffed for Overwatch 2 isn't really something that's been touched on until now.
The need to completely rebalance some of Overwatch's heroes can not be a simple task, and so it's really no surprise that the Overwatch 2 release date has slipped to next year. While Blizzard has not outright confirmed that Overwatch 2 will launch in 2022, it's been said that the Overwatch League will use an early build of Overwatch 2 for next season, and so putting two and two together, it seems highly likely that the long-awaited sequel should be out around the same time.
A recent report suggested that the Overwatch 2 release date will be Q2 of 2022, putting it in the April 1 to June 30 range. Since May 2022 marks the 6th anniversary of the original Overwatch's launch, it seems like it would be a prime candidate for the sequel's release month, though nothing official has been confirmed by Blizzard at the time of this writing.
It's possible that Overwatch fans will finally get some concrete details about Overwatch 2 come BlizzCon 2022, and if they're lucky, maybe even sooner than that. For now, though, fans can continue wondering exactly how significantly the PvP meta will change once the new game launches next year.
Overwatch 2 is in development.
Source: Blizzard
