Blizzard Leisure is bringing its PC video games to Steam, beginning with the discharge of Overwatch 2 on Valve’s digital storefront on Aug. 10, Blizzard introduced Wednesday. Polygon studies: The Home windows PC model of Overwatch 2, like a lot of Blizzard’s PC video games, is at present solely accessible by way of Battle.web. However with Microsoft’s impending acquisition of Activision Blizzard and declining participant engagement within the sport, the maker of Diablo, Warcraft, and Overwatch seems to be altering its technique. Blizzard says it should convey “a variety” of its video games to Steam, however didn’t specify which titles past Overwatch 2 will make the soar from Battle.web. (A number of traditional Blizzard video games, together with the unique Diablo and the primary two Warcraft video games, can be found by way of GOG.com.)
The acceptance of Steam as a platform for Blizzard’s video games is a part of the studio’s evolution, the corporate mentioned in a weblog publish. “[O]ne of the concepts pushing us ahead is assembly gamers world wide the place they’re, and making our video games as simple as doable to entry and play,” the corporate mentioned. “We wish to give everybody an opportunity to expertise our universes with previous associates whereas making new ones, regardless of how they select to play.” In its announcement, Blizzard mentioned it isn’t transferring away from Battle.web. However, it defined, “as we have developed, the business has developed too — gaming is now not only for particular communities because it was when Battle.web launched over 20 years in the past, gaming is for everybody — and although we stay dedicated to repeatedly investing in and supporting Battle.web, we wish to break down the boundaries to make it simpler for gamers all over the place to search out and luxuriate in our video games.”
Blizzard says that gamers on Steam will nonetheless want a Battle.web account linked to Overwatch 2 to play the sport. The Steam model will help Steam achievements and associates lists, however Blizzard didn’t announce Steam Deck help. Overwatch 2 can now be wishlisted by way of Steam. As for Blizzard’s future plans for different sport releases on Steam, the corporate mentioned will probably be “sharing extra about potential different video games coming to the platform when the time is correct.”
