This is almost like a how-to guide for a FPS beta: open the gates slowly, stress test your hardware and continue to expand and contract the rubber-band of invites so you know what your infrastructure is capable of.
That’s roughly what Blizzard is doing anyway. In layman’s terms: more Overwatch invites are going out — but these ones are only temporary.
In a post on Battle.net, Blizzard has announced they will be opening up the beta flood gates to Overwatch across players in North America and Europe. Accounts will start being flagged in the next day or so, but there’s a catch.
This wave of invites might only be temporary, as Blizzard are only opening the gates for three days to “stress test our server hardware and technology”. “We will be flagging accounts for the Beta Test Weekend a little early, during a scheduled maintenance on Thursday, November 19,” Blizzard wrote.
“We encourage all new recruits to use this additional time to download and install the beta client so you can be ready for action once servers come back online.”
Because the stress test is much larger than what the closed beta has currently been accommodating, the three-day window will take place on a much smaller map pool. “During the Beta Test Weekend, all players (including those currently in the Closed Beta) will have access to the full roster of 21 heroes and a limited selection of maps: Hanamura, King’s Row, and Watchpoint: Gibraltar.”
It’s worth noting that Australians will be able to play in the beta as well, if their accounts are flagged — you’ll just be playing through the North American servers, although as I found my experience playing from Sydney was surprisingly trouble-free.
Blizzard has also taken pains to note that organisations are welcome to run tournaments over the course of the three days, although they “will not be issuing tournament licenses for large-scale events with prize pools” over US$10,000.
For those who do get access to the beta weekend, you’ll be able to play and post on the beta forums like everyone else until Monday, November 23 until the scheduled maintenance window. “During this maintenance, all Beta Test Weekend participants will have their beta access removed. At this point, these players will also no longer be able to create new threads or reply to existing topics in our beta forums.”
“Players with Closed Beta access will be otherwise unaffected and able to continue playing (and posting) as normal after maintenance concludes,” Blizzard adds.
Comments
4 responses to “The Next Wave of Overwatch Invites Are Temporary”
Still waiting for the beta. Got heroes of the storm since alpha but totally nothing for over watch. Makes me sad since I even preordered the collectors edition.
Betas for consoles happening any time soon?
refresh refresh refresh
Pick me! Pick me!
Just another over hyped trash blizzard game. But expect the blizzard drones to say its re-invented the FPS genre…….. :/