Overwatch Getting Open Beta in May
Blizzard Entertainment and game director Jeff Kaplan officially announced today that the highly anticipated first-person shooter, Overwatch, will have an open beta session in May. In addition, the release date for the game has also been confirmed on May 24 for all platforms. The Overwatch Open Beta runs from May 5-9, and it will be available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC.
However, players who pre-order the game by April 29 will receive somewhat earlier access to the beta. If you pre-order the game by that time, you can start playing the beta on May 3, and you can also invite a friend. In addition, the full initial roster of 21 characters will be available during the Overwatch Open Beta as well.
Xbox One players will need the Xbox Live Gold Membership in order to play the beta as well as the full game. A PlayStation Plus subscription is not required for players to play the open beta on PlayStation 4, but they will need one at launch to play the full game.
The bad news? Any progression from the Overwatch Open Beta will not transfer over to the full game. That includes skins, rewards and levels. All the open beta progress will be wiped after the closed beta as well.
Overwatch finally hits the shelves on May 24 for Xbox One, PlayStation and Windows PC. You can check out the announcement video for the open beta session and the street date announcement video in the players below.