Overwatch Beta delayed

There's a lot of hype in the gaming world for Overwatch, a totally new multiplayer game from Blizzard - their first new IP since the debut of Starcraft back in 1998. That's a very long time.

It's a colourful first person multiplayer shooter with a huge range of classes and a distinctive art style. The company had been planning a major closed beta for January 2016 but they've pushed it off into February. This doesn't sound like particularly bad news, as the developers just want to take a little more time to make sure everything is as perfect as it can be. When you're a company as big as Blizzard, you can't just release a half assed product.

Game Director Jeff Kaplan had this to say:

"Rather than try to rush a beta patch out this month (which would mean the new game mode would have to be put off), 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."

It all sounds totally legit and not at all a sign of internal issues or a major delay. The new release will come with at least one new game mode and extra maps to go along with it, so it will defintiely be worth the wait for fans.

Overwatch is set to launch on PS4, Xbox One and PC by summer 2016.