Overwatch Closed Beta Delayed to February, Features New Mode

Blizzard Entertainment’s closed beta for Overwatch was set to restart this month after going on hiatus in December 2015. Unfortunately, it seems to have suffered a short delay.

The reason for the delay is the sheer amount of feedback gathered and wanting to implement a new mode. According to game director Jeff Kaplan, “After looking through all of the feedback from last year, one of the things we noticed players consistently mentioning was their desire for more game modes in Overwatch, in addition to Point Capture and Payload. Without getting into specifics, we are working on a new game mode. And we’re very excited about it! And we have some great new maps to support it, too, but we need a little more time to get everything just right.

“We’re going to take a few extra weeks before bringing the closed beta back. By doing so, we can make sure we can include the new game mode along with the new maps. This will also allow us to do some additional polish to the game’s progression and reward system. Though all these features will still technically be a work-in-progress during the beta, we’d like them to be at a certain quality bar before releasing them for testing.”

First round beta players are guaranteed access but you can still try and sign up for the beta.