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Overwatch beta delayed until Feb, will return with new game mode

Overwatch beta

The Overwatch closed beta was taken offline last month in order to gather player feedback and allow for some technical tweaks to be made. Today, Blizzard have announced they’ll be bringing the beta back in mid-February with a new game mode in tow. 

If you’re an Overwatcher, you might wanna check out our handylist of characters.

Shortly after the closed beta was pulled, Blizzard released a developer update that declared Overwatch’s testing phase would return with a new progression system designed not to incentivise single-character play. It’s DOA was scheduled for this month, however it seems it’ll now slip into next.

“While progress has been great and the team has been working super hard to get everything implemented on time, we’re not quite ready to bring the Closed Beta back online just yet,” saysgame director Jeff Kaplan in an update. “We’ve been pretty open about the fact that we could slip into February from the beginning, but a big reason for this delay is that we really wanted to add one more big feature to the next beta patch.”

The feedback from last year, adds Kaplan, informed the developers that players want more game modes in addition to Point Capture and Payload. While they aren’t giving much away at this point, the new and incoming mode has “some great maps to support it.”

“Rather than try to rush a beta patch out this month (which would mean the new game mode would have to be put off), we’re going to take a few extra weeks before bringing the Closed Beta back,” continues Kaplan. “This will also allow us to do some additional polish to the game’s progression and reward system.”

The tentative “mid-February” note is all we’re getting for now as to when the closed beta will return, however Kaplan does make a point of saying the devs “don’t intend to slip out” of this month.