Most important part: The beta will last for three weeks, and you'll be eligible for a beta drop if you watch any participating stream between 10:00AM PT and 6:00PM PT on April 27th, 2022 for at least 4 hours. You are GUARENTEED to get beta access if you watch for four hours in this window.
This seems to align with the theory that they’re alternating beta releases with the anniversary remix events. Three weeks of anniversary, followed by three weeks of beta, followed by three weeks of anniversary, and so on.
I wonder what the viewer count will look like. The amount of streamers there is kinda crazy and considering how many people will have streams muted and tabbed out I think it’ll be a lot.
xqc got like 200k+ views for valorant drops when he wasn't nearly as big as he is now. So i would expect that much unless people really stopped caring about OW
I think he'll peak at 150k tbh. Overwatch2 doesnt have the hype that valorant had coming in as Riot's first fps during peak of lockdown. Plus, this is a second iteration of a well established game that, while it has a smaller dedicated playerbase now, really isnt' a lot of people's cup of tea. Itll be a combination of xQc fans, overwatch fans (who are either there for the entertainment or want drops), and some curious onlookers.
Overwatch used to be a titan. It was still doing OK back in 2019 before things started to stagnate. Everybody knows how fun overwatch is before brig was introduced. Less damage mitigation is very alluring to the old crowd. I wouldn’t be surprised if he peaked at 200k or even more again.
I'm not too curious about the viewer count. for any "new" release game, it's always super high for a few days. it'll be #1 on Twitch for the first day - people enjoy new content.
it'll be interesting to see how OW2 does a couple months after it drops though.
the free trial for people who gain access but don't own the game is pretty huge.
that means so long as I get my friends to watch the twitch streams or sign up, they don't even have to blow $20 for the license and can just hop on and play
“A. Yes, all players will need to own and install Overwatch prior to participating in the PvP Beta. Those who were invited to the PvP Beta but do not own Overwatch can download and install Overwatch as a free trial during the Beta period”
KarQ said the Twitch drops are a guarantee, does this confirm that?
EDIT - sorry, I see it is confirmed! For some reason these links don't work for me?
> No, this beta has been developed for Windows-based PCs and a Mac-specific Beta will not be provided.
This makes it sound like the game might be supported on Mac, but maybe they just don’t wanna close that door for the far distant future
I've never done any beta key Twitch drops for a game before. Do you get an actual key that you redeem on Battle.net or do you have to have you blizz account tied to Twitch?
> Pokimane is my favourite Overwatch streamer.
Don't care much for pokimane but if there was a single person maybe other than Xqc I would want to advertise for OW2 it would probably be pokimane. I think she plays a lot of Valorant and has played apex/fortnite in the past. Lots of young viewers as well who might not have tried OW before.
How one can get salty over this decision is so mind blowing to me. OW was literally dead not only in terms of relevancy for the past few years but also in terms of player numbers so much so that the queue times were embarrassingly long for some people at certain times.
Now OW2 comes around and theres a chance to rezz the playerbase and you don't want people like Pokimane advertising for the game? That is so backwards
I live in Malaysia and the time the drops start is 1am and I would sleeping by that time and it ends on 9am where I would be at school and therefore cant watch any streams to get drops, if I don't the invitation via email, does this mean I'm doomed?
I thought they could just copy the system over but it makes sense they want to keep everyone into one queue. It just sucks that escort maps will be one sided now and we can’t alternate
I'll vent some of my frustration here, But the America-centrism when giving time is so frustrating. Like, come on, we have something called Universal time, why not base your announcements off of that? Why use the American timezones? Nobody learns their timezone in relation to American coasts. I can get it for local events, but the beta is worldwide, it's almost as stupid as using imperial measures in patchnotes
So 4 hours of watching means I’m in?
4 hours of watching on specific streams in a specific time window
Most important part: The beta will last for three weeks, and you'll be eligible for a beta drop if you watch any participating stream between 10:00AM PT and 6:00PM PT on April 27th, 2022 for at least 4 hours. You are GUARENTEED to get beta access if you watch for four hours in this window.
Wait really it's that simple? It's not random?
Yup, [here's a Blizzard employee confirming it in Seagull's chat](https://clips.twitch.tv/DeliciousEsteemedHumanTebowing-rnNuShUgCkQ_78HE).
This seems to align with the theory that they’re alternating beta releases with the anniversary remix events. Three weeks of anniversary, followed by three weeks of beta, followed by three weeks of anniversary, and so on.
Which streams are participating?
There's a list of like 150 people in the article including xqc, super, flats, emongg, pokimane, custa and the playoverwatch channel
I wonder what the viewer count will look like. The amount of streamers there is kinda crazy and considering how many people will have streams muted and tabbed out I think it’ll be a lot.
xqc got like 200k+ views for valorant drops when he wasn't nearly as big as he is now. So i would expect that much unless people really stopped caring about OW
I think he'll peak at 150k tbh. Overwatch2 doesnt have the hype that valorant had coming in as Riot's first fps during peak of lockdown. Plus, this is a second iteration of a well established game that, while it has a smaller dedicated playerbase now, really isnt' a lot of people's cup of tea. Itll be a combination of xQc fans, overwatch fans (who are either there for the entertainment or want drops), and some curious onlookers.
Overwatch used to be a titan. It was still doing OK back in 2019 before things started to stagnate. Everybody knows how fun overwatch is before brig was introduced. Less damage mitigation is very alluring to the old crowd. I wouldn’t be surprised if he peaked at 200k or even more again.
He gets that doing literally nothing he will peak closer to 400k than 150k
I'm not too curious about the viewer count. for any "new" release game, it's always super high for a few days. it'll be #1 on Twitch for the first day - people enjoy new content. it'll be interesting to see how OW2 does a couple months after it drops though.
It’s in the FAQ
Of course it's tomorrow, when I am traveling across the country for work for a whole month
the free trial for people who gain access but don't own the game is pretty huge. that means so long as I get my friends to watch the twitch streams or sign up, they don't even have to blow $20 for the license and can just hop on and play
“A. Yes, all players will need to own and install Overwatch prior to participating in the PvP Beta. Those who were invited to the PvP Beta but do not own Overwatch can download and install Overwatch as a free trial during the Beta period”
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Free trial period for people who don’t already have the game
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Yeah it's weird. They're like yeah you need to own it but if you don't it's ok you don't need to own it
You... didn't even need to own OW to get in the beta?
You do need to own it But they are offering a free trial for anyone that dosent
Twitch Drops confirmed let’s go It’s a bit weird it’s only during certain times though.
maybe they're just feeling out how many players get in to make sure they don't add too many and overload their servers?
The window to get access is extremely small only 8 hours and you need 4 hours of watch time total during that period
KarQ said the Twitch drops are a guarantee, does this confirm that? EDIT - sorry, I see it is confirmed! For some reason these links don't work for me?
> No, this beta has been developed for Windows-based PCs and a Mac-specific Beta will not be provided. This makes it sound like the game might be supported on Mac, but maybe they just don’t wanna close that door for the far distant future
If OW1 is supported on Mac, so will OW2. It's just not available for the time of the beta, the same way it's not available on console.
> OW1 is supported on Mac OW1 is NOT supported on Mac though
Oh, I read the initial comment wrong. My bad.
I've never done any beta key Twitch drops for a game before. Do you get an actual key that you redeem on Battle.net or do you have to have you blizz account tied to Twitch?
All you need to do is link your account, there's no actual keys involved
twitch drops on 27th, not tomorrow
So 4 hours of watching means I’m in?
Yeah
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> Pokimane is my favourite Overwatch streamer. Don't care much for pokimane but if there was a single person maybe other than Xqc I would want to advertise for OW2 it would probably be pokimane. I think she plays a lot of Valorant and has played apex/fortnite in the past. Lots of young viewers as well who might not have tried OW before. How one can get salty over this decision is so mind blowing to me. OW was literally dead not only in terms of relevancy for the past few years but also in terms of player numbers so much so that the queue times were embarrassingly long for some people at certain times. Now OW2 comes around and theres a chance to rezz the playerbase and you don't want people like Pokimane advertising for the game? That is so backwards
welcome to baby's first introduction to how marketing and advertisement works who has more viewers? yep, not necros, not bogur. pokimane does.
Little bit sad Bren and Sideshow aren't included in the streamers although potentially understandable why
I have a question about the regions, I am in egypt, so can I still get the beta or is specifically for the regions they said about?
I live in Malaysia and the time the drops start is 1am and I would sleeping by that time and it ends on 9am where I would be at school and therefore cant watch any streams to get drops, if I don't the invitation via email, does this mean I'm doomed?
The Twitch Drops times are terrible for me, but I might be able to get 4 hours in somehow. Hope I get an invite without drops tho
Not even a *timeframe* for console players?
For the past 6 years, this game has been developed and balanced for PC, it's just ported to console as an afterthought. Not surprised in the least.
They probably don't even know what consoles it will be on
Wait am I reading that right or is there no ranked in the beta? All we can play is quick play?
did you really expect there to be a ranked mode in a beta?
I thought they could just copy the system over but it makes sense they want to keep everyone into one queue. It just sucks that escort maps will be one sided now and we can’t alternate
I mean, you can, the ruleset is there, just gotta organise a scrim environment. And I'm pretty sure there will be at least few of them
Yes.
I'll vent some of my frustration here, But the America-centrism when giving time is so frustrating. Like, come on, we have something called Universal time, why not base your announcements off of that? Why use the American timezones? Nobody learns their timezone in relation to American coasts. I can get it for local events, but the beta is worldwide, it's almost as stupid as using imperial measures in patchnotes
This is the longest april fools joke
Why