14 DAY TRIAL // The team at Blizzard in charge of Overwatch is announcing that it is bringing back the beta stage for Overwatch at some point during the month of February, although at the moment the studio is unwilling to settle on an exact date.
Initially, the plan was to bring the game back online for those testing it before the end of January, but a big new feature is in development at the moment and needs more time before it can be ready for prime time.
Blizzard states on the official forums that, "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. 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. "
Overwatch is getting a new game mode that will support new maps, but the company is unwilling to deliver any kind of information about its unique mechanics or the inspiration for its creation.
During the first phase of the beta, gamers were able to enjoy Payload and Point Capture, both of which have been popular with the community.
According to Blizzard, more work is also being done on the reward and the progressions systems, and they are likely to be more robust by the time the game comes back online in February.
The company thanks all fans for their patience and for the feedback they have offered over time, saying that it wants to compensate their patience by delivering a solid experience even if many of the core features of the title remain a work-in-progress.
Overwatch does not have an official launch date
Fans are expecting that the game will be officially out of beta before the end of the year, and Blizzard has said that it wants to expand the number of players that take part in the testing before that happens.
Overwatch is built around battles between two teams of six players, with all those involved getting access to a wide variety of characters, with the ability to switch between roles depending on the battlefield situation and the style of the gamer.
All the maps offered so far are based on real-world locations, and the studio is planning to use the same model for future locations.
According to Blizzard, it is planning to make its multiplayer-focused first-person shooter as accessible as ever, the kind of experience that allows newcomers to jump quickly in and find a mode they like while giving veterans plenty of depth to explore.
Overwatch will be launched on the PC, the PlayStation 4 from Sony and the Xbox One from Microsoft.
The game will not use a free-to-play model and gamers will be able to get access to all characters and modes with one payment, with all future downloadable content packs for the experience offered for free.