Blizzard Entertainment, game developer, publisher and world creator, announced Overwatch, highly stylized team-based shooter game, during last year's BlizzCon that was held on Nov. 7. Almost a full year after the announcement was made, Blizzard will be opening the gates to the game's beta phase.
In a post dated Oct. 14, Blizzard revealed that Overwatch closed beta will officially commence on Oct. 27, 2015. The company also disclosed that it is on its way to recruiting its first batch of beta testers.
Overwatch's beta phase is aimed at two major goals. First is to get feedback from the chosen testers regarding the gameplay, which includes game balance, fun and feel. Second, with the beta phase, Blizzard hopes to see how much stress its game servers can take and make sure that the game runs on every existing platform that can possibly support the game.
"To accomplish this, we're dividing our beta participants into two different groups, each with different mission objectives and deployment schedules," Blizzard details. "The Closed Beta group will form the core of our testing crew."
Furthermore, Blizzard also stated that in addition to the core beta testers, Beta Test Weekends that will cater to a wider group of players will also be held at various points on the globe. This should be in line with the company's goal of stress-testing the Overwatch servers by getting as many heroes playing simultaneously as possible.
"These larger-scale Beta Test Weekends will be brought online occasionally for a limited time, generally over a weekend, and will run concurrently with our ongoing Closed Beta test," Blizzard elaborates.
The first Beta Test Weekend will be held after BlizzCon 2015, which will be held on Nov. 6-7.
Overwatch, which takes elements from Blizzard's canceled MMO project, lists 18 playable heroes, each with his/her own unique abilities that define them either as tanks, supports, damage dealers, reconnaissance specialists or a hybrid that combines a facet of the primary classifications.
The beta launch on Oct. 27 will be limited to the Americas. The beta releases for Europe and Asia are still getting ironed out. Moreover, it will only be available for Windows and will require the installation of Battle.net.
Interested parties for the Overwatch closed beta must first sign up on Battle.net.
