It’s been a turbulent few weeks for Activision Blizzard following the lawsuit by California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing. Employees have staged formal walkout while CEO Bobby Kotick apologized for the company’s initial tone-deaf response and promised that people would be “held accountable for their actions.” Amid all of this, Overwatch League – the official esports league for the hero shooter – has seen numerous sponsors like IBM, Coca-Cola and State Farm backing out.
If that weren’t enough, it seems that Overwatch 2 may be farther off than expected. Metro, who has provided leaks on the sequel before, spoke to “multiple people close to my original source” who have indicated that “development is taking longer than expected. From what I can gather a release in 2022 does not seem likely anymore. I hope this is false and I’m proven wrong.”
Again, this isn’t solid confirmation and should be taken with a grain of salt, but it does line up with Metro’s earlier statement of development moving “really slow.”
Activision-Blizzard had already indicated that Overwatch 2 along with Diablo 4 would not be releasing this year. With that in mind, it’s still possible that the former has a closed beta in 2022, much like the current game which had a fairly long beta before launch. Again, time will tell but it remains to be seen how fan enthusiasm, along with interest in the Overwatch League, will persist in the coming year.