While we don't know for certain that the game is actually in development, its release will likely make a splash across the gaming industry, especially if it goes free to play, or manages to add in some new feature that no one's ever thought of. Plus, its eSports scene could become an even bigger deal, which will just pour more cash into the coffers of Blizzard and Activis

An all-time classic that is hard to pass up. Team Fortress 2 moved the needle in online shooters when it came to its distinctive characters and focus on completing objectives to take home that chicken din

If you want that hero shooter vibe with a more open landscape, Apex Legends has your back. Respawn took the popular style of games like PUBG and Overwatch and blended them to find itself a successful

As we all know, Blizzard is owned by Activision. And if there's any company that loves putting out sequel after sequel, it's Activision. We still get a new Call Of Duty game every single year, which is insane since that means we're going on 16 years straight of COD sequels. But that method hasn't worked for other games. This strategy almost killed the Tony Hawk franchise and did kill the Guitar Hero franchise. In fact, it pretty much snuffed out the entire plastic instrument sub-genre of rhythm ga

Overwatch 2 was announced much too early, likely to pave over controversy at the time surrounding the company and its many scandals. We were given an awkward glimpse at PvE content that wasn’t ready for the spotlight in the slightest, while progression systems linked to certain characters have been dumped entirely in the version coming next month. Blizzard didn’t know what it wanted the sequel to be, and it still doesn’t, so we are stepping hesitantly into a future where I desperately hope this hero shooter can earn its place. The original game is being shut down as it arrives, with its younger sibling intended to replace everything it stood for as heroes, cosmetics, and everything else is carried across as part of a hopefully seamless transition. I’ll miss what is being left behind, and so will many others.

Of course, we had awesome women like Mei and Zarya amongst the cast, but there was D.Va, Tracer, and Widowmaker strutting their stuff alongside them. Overwatch was a real sticking point in our development as horny gamers, and a willingness to embrace sexuality in our games and view it as something to no longer be ashamed of. Overwatch was a stepping stone to this point, but a stone covered with the slippery moss of the mid ‘10s Whedonised feminism, where the best way to make a female character strong was to make her sexy too. Putting aside the smut, I was invested in some of the game’s queer ships for years, whether it be through tasteful fanart or brilliantly written fiction that understood these characters better than Blizzard ever will. Pharmercy till I die. You know Overwatch was something special because it made you care, and the relative indifference from Blizzard in the years since is almost upsetting.

It was the biggest shooter in the world for a long time. Blizzard eagerly celebrated new player milestones on social media, while seasonal events became an all-encompassing occasion in the shooter space before the days of battle passes and live service updates. It was both ahead of its time and constrained by the formula it existed within, as additional game modes introduced as part of big updates and quarterly events never lived up to the base experience it was built upon. Junkenstein’s Revenge, overwatch 2 Gundam Wing skinsArchives, and Winter Wonderland were great fun, but fighting against bullet sponge AI wasn’t what this game was about, and hoping to expand on this universe only served to highlight its shortcomings.

But then 2020 became...Well, 2020. With the pandemic, I made some concessions and accepted that Blizzard would probably hold off on releasing Overwatch 2 until 2021. By that time, the game would be even more polished and ready to take the gaming world by storm once ag

Overwatch getting shuttered and Stadia getting taken behind a woodshed isn’t the apocalypse. Most titles on Stadia already exist elsewhere and Overwatch 2 appears to be a real video game. This isn’t the end of all things. You can be excited about Overwatch 2 while still admitting it’s a crappy way to treat fans. The suits at Blizzard and Google (I know it’s "Alphabet" or whatever now, but come the fuck on) don’t care about you. Maybe that’s a cliche, but it’s worth remembering because it’s going to only happen more as the "take the money and run" strategy plays out. They’ll promise and swear that your purchase will be good and playable for the foreseeable future and then take that shit away the moment it’s convenient.

It’s the same corporate avarice that led us to Stadia , only Google was far more incompetent with how they sold it. Fortunately, Google has more money than there are gods in the heavens; they can (mostly) pay people back for the company’s mistake . But remember Stadia wasn’t a live game that just didn’t take off. It was an entire platform that didn’t take off. A platform that Google promised would stay online for the foreseeable future. And, like Blizzard, Google could also afford the servers.