Overwatch 2 will be released on October 04 as a Free2Play title. As Blizzard has now clarified in a Reddit AMA, this also means the end of Overwatch 1.

In a Reddit AMA – a kind of interview with the entire reddit community – from June 22, Overwatch 2 developers took questions from fans. One of the most important pieces of information from this thread was the clear statement that Overwatch 1 will disappear completely as soon as part 2 is released as a Free2Play title on October 04.

What do the developers say? In a response to a question about the game’s Early Access, director Aaron Keller stated, “When OW2 launches on October 4, it will be a replacement for the current live service.” This means that Overwatch 1 will no longer exist in its current form, but will be completely and utterly replaced by Overwatch 2. On PC, it will even run through the same file: Overwatch.exe.

For years it was unclear what would happen to Overwatch 1

Why is this statement important? A tweet shortly after the reveal of Overwatch 2 has caused confusion for years. It said that players of Overwatch 1 and 2 will play together on the same maps. The community didn’t know if that meant that Overwatch 1 and 2 would be playable at the same time or if the successor would replace the original. It is now clear: Overwatch 1 will no longer be playable with the release of part 2. For many players who were already able to test the beta of the successor, however, this is not a problem. The changes of part 2 are so good that part 1 seems “unplayable” in comparison.

There probably won’t be an “Overwatch Classic” of sorts

Is Overwatch 1 coming back? Since the conjecture that Overwatch 1 will be restlessly replaced has been circulating for almost 3 years, some fans are hoping for some sort of “Overwatch Classic” – that is, that Overwatch will be made available as it was at launch, similar to what happened with WoW Classic. Back in 2020, former Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan stated that a hypothetical Overwatch Classic would be “very costly from a technical and artistic perspective” (via Twitter). There were also hints that Blizzard itself didn’t even archive Overwatch (completely) in its old form, which is why such a kind of restoration probably won’t happen. What do you guys think of this announcement? Do you want to keep playing Overwatch 1 or do you think part 2 with all the changes is better? Tell us in the comments.

By the way: If you want to play Overwatch 2, you will need a cell phone.