Overwatch 2’s first PvP beta starts today, runs until May 17th

You can finally play Blizzard Entertainment’s hero shooter follow-up Overwatch 2 from today, two and half years since it was announced. Well, you can if you signed up to the first closed PvP beta and satisfy Blizzard’s conditions enough to receive an invite, that is. Blizzard confirmed in a tweet that emails with instructions on how to access the game will start firing out from 11am PDT/7pm BST to those who opted in to the beta at the Overwatch site. You can still sign up as of now, too.

Blizzard have a handy dandy FAQ detailing exactly how to register for the beta, along with info like regional availability and system requirements. Anyone who’s chosen in the first batch should get access to the beta today, but Blizz say they may send out more invites further down the line, so if you’re interested then it’s still worth opting in. Just remember that you need to own the original Overwatch and have it installed to be able to play the beta, even if it’s just the free trial.

Overwatch 2 introduces a new hero, Sojourn, and reworks several others, as Jai detailed last month. There’s a Beta Bash livestream on the PlayOverwatch Twitch channel tomorrow at 11am PDT/7pm BST showing off both Sojourn and the new 5v5 teams. Another way to land beta access is to link your Twitch and Battle.net accounts for Twitch Drops and watch Overwatch 2 beta streams from the channels listed on Blizzard’s site. Overwatch 2 has plenty more betas yet to come so don’t fret if you miss nabbing access to this one.

Activision Blizzard are still contending with legal issues and reports alleging a discriminatory and harassing working environment. The Overwatch team tried to distance themselves from some of this when they renamed McCree in October. This year, Microsoft has acquired the company for $69 billion (£50 billion) and Blizzard Entertainment head Mike Ybarra has said he’s committed to fostering change. There still seem to be a fair few ongoing staff welfare concerns at Actiblizz, though.

It’s still not certain when Overwatch 2 will launch in full yet, as the game was delayed to some unknown time at the end of last year, possibly until 2023. This first beta lasts until May 17th.