Blizzard Entertainment has announced plans to make “a selection” of its PC games available on Steam.
The firstBlizzardtitle to launch onValve’s digital marketplace will be the free-to-play team-based hero shooterOverwatch 2, which is available to wishlist now ahead of its August 10 release.
Steamplayers will need to connect to a Battle.Net account to play the game, as is the case on all platforms, which Blizzard said enables features like cross-play.
“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 bossGabe 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.”
Blizzard said it will “be sharing more about potential other games coming to the platform when the time is right”.
Further reading
Overwatch 2’s Steam release will coincide with the launch of the game’s next season, Invasion. It willintroduce new story missionsand a new hero, among other features.
And it precedesMicrosoft’s anticipated acquisition ofActivision Blizzard. The companies announced today that they’veagreed to extend their merger agreementuntil October as they continue to seek regulatory approval to complete the $69 billion deal.
