Overwatch 2 is coming to Steam, yes, really

Cena urges the agents of Overwatch to «fight the invasion» in his brief reveal trailer.

Ramattra seeks liberation for omnics in the trailer for Overwatch 2's sixth season, Invasion.

Despite speculation, anticipation, and trepidation that actor-wrestler-nice guy John Cena might be coming to Overwatch 2, he is not. Cena is instead helping to promote Overwatch 2 — à la Megan Fox’s stint as a Diablo 4 hypewoman — and its upcoming expansion, Invasion, which will bring a new maps, a new game type, and the game’s 38th hero to Blizzard’s shooter on Aug. 10.

Jeff Chamberlain, a cinematic director for Blizzard, explains where the story of Overwatch 2 is heading, including the announcement of a new animated short. Below is a brief summary of the article covering the history of Overwatch's story and where it's heading with the Invasion update.

Blizzard Entertainment struck gold with World of Warcraft and it has been dominating the MMO space for almost two decades. Overwatch was originally envisioned as Project Titan, a new MMORPG that would not be a part of the Diablo, Starcraft, or Warcraft franchises.

In what looks like a first, Blizzard will offer some of its games on Valve's Steam store.

Things are arguably better for Blizzard than they have been for a while given the successful launch of Diablo IV, but what about another game that recently launched, Overwatch 2? Things aren’t so rosy there. Blizzard recently canned the game’s paid PvE component, and according to the latest Activision Blizzard earnings report, despite going free-to-play and delivering a fairly steady cadence of new content, Overwatch 2 is already starting to bleed players.

Blizzard games will be coming to Steam, starting with Overwatch 2 on 10th August, giving PC gamers an option outside of Battle.net for where they buy and play their Blizzard games.

Blizzard is bringing a selection of its PC games over to Steam, starting with Overwatch 2. The free-to-play team-based shooter is headed to Valve's gaming client on August 10, in what appears to be a change in Blizzard's strategy due to its impending acquisition by Microsoft and the low player engagement the game has garnered in recent times. The Windows PC version of Overwatch 2 and other games from the publisher is largely restricted to its Battle.net launcher — a hot topic for most PC gamers, who prefer having all their games on one platform and hate having to juggle between them. The Steam version will also include the niceties of unlockable achievements and cross-platform multiplayer.

Overwatch 2 will be available for all players on Steam, becoming the first of hopefully many Blizzard titles to join the online gaming platform. 

For a while now, Blizzard fans on PC have had to begrudgingly put up with Battle.net, the developer's very own launcher that it uses to boot up pretty much every game released by Activision Blizzard. It's a pain in the neck for any PC player to have to constantly download launchers for different games, but Battle.net is a particularly annoying example of a developer forcing its fans to put up with a subpar launcher when Steam is already installed on 90 percent of computers at this point.

Blizzard is taking its first tentative steps away from Battle.net exclusivity, starting with the launch of Overwatch 2 on Steam this August and the promise of more games on the way.