Overwatch 2 Beta and Ping System Coming, According to Reddit AMA

On Monday, Blizzard’s Overwatch developer team took to Reddit to host an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session. There, they offered new information about Overwatch 2, including the fact that the game will most likely have a beta.

For longtime Blizzard fans, this may not be a surprise. After all, the company historically runs pre-release tests for their major multiplayer games.

Exact details about the beta are sparse, though. Technical director John Lafleur was very tongue-in-cheek when discussing a possible beta date: “If I knew when, I couldn’t tell you. If I told you, I’d have to kill you. But [game director Aaron Keller] is our resident secret-leaker, so you might give him a try!”

Beyond the beta announcement, Overwatch fans have some new features to look forward to.

For example, game director Aaron Keller confirmed that Blizzard is looking into a ping system for Overwatch 2. This feature is a staple of Apex Legends, making it easier to communicate basic team goals and commands without using a microphone. 

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“We’ve definitely considered this,” Keller said. “In fact we have a prototype of it running internally right now. We don’t make a habit of promising things to players until they are actually announced and I’m not going to break that tradition right now (I’m sure I’ll blow it at some other point in this AMA), but it is something that we are excited about as a team and are working through issues currently.”

Blizzard was a little cagier about whether Overwatch 2 will have cross-play or cross-progression features. As technical director John Lafleur said, “We’re pretty excited about the possibilities of cross-play and cross-progression, but we don’t have anything to announce, today.” 

Continuing, he said, “However, given the additional complexities of cross-progression, it would probably make most sense to tackle cross-play, first and then explore progression as a potential add-on, if we go this route.”

While this tentative info is pretty tantalizing, we still don’t have key info such as the game’s release date. But given Blizzard’s recent announcement that Overwatch 2 will be 5v5 instead of 6v6, it’s a sure bet they have more surprises in store for players.