It has been confirmed for some time now that Overwatch 2 will be released at October 4th of this year and the servers of the first Overwatch will be closed forever at October 2th, this implies you´ll never be able to play the first game never again. The first Overwatch is quite dead and Activision Blizzard is interested in their video game reaching as many people as possible, which I think they will achieve since Overwatch 2 will finally be free to play, which will motivate many people to give it a try, having the servers of the first game open would be something like shooting yourself in the foot.
Well, this whole thing is full of nuances, it is not a subject that can be talked about so easily for many reasons. When it is said that the servers of the first game will be closed, that basically means the first installment of Overwatch will never be playable again, I want to make a very big emphasis with this because it seems to me that very few people talk about this, a video game that won the award for best video game of the year in 2016 is going to disappear and will never be playable again, isn't that sad?
Overwatch became a boom at the time, everyone wanted to play it including me, and although I don't agree with the fact that it won the best game award in its respective year, the fact that it made such an achievement is there, to be honest, in my whole life I have only been able to play Overwatch like three times, which was when Blizzard left the game free for a weekend, the situation inside the video game was deplorable, it would take you a long time to even find a match, easily more than 15 minutes, everything because of the displeasure of the community in front of Blizzard's respective choices regarding the game's competitive meta, which resulted in the majority abandoning Overwatch.
The truth is, despite all the bad things, I liked the game and I had planned to buy it over time in some way, but suddenly being told that the game will close forever leaves me with a strange feeling of bittersweet. Yes, I know that Overwatch 2 will be free to play, so there will be no need to pay, but, I don't know, it still leaves me with mixed feelings.
Does this mean that if you invested in the game, you will lose your money? Not really (kind of), skins and cosmetics which you bought by youself with your own money can be transferred to your Overwatch 2 account so everything is not so that bad honestly. The fact that it will be free to play was something that the first game needed from the beginning, rather, it took a long time to reach that decision.
People in general like to remember the past, returning from time to time to play things from our past, because, perhaps our vision in a game changes, we learn from our mistakes by seeing the past and in the same way, old video games can be studied for a better understanding of current gaming industry, the fact that a company takes away that right sounds a bit terrifying. I mean, think about those people who not ironically, spent 49$ (correct me if I´m wrong on the price) on Overwatch when it was released years ago, even though it was an inflated price since the game lacked enough content, those people who own the game will no longer be able to play it, even if you have the physical format. One way or another, you could say that some money was actually wasted.
Can you imagine that, for whatever reason, Overwatch 2 does poorly for Activision Blizzard? I mean, I doubt things will go wrong this time, the game will be free to play, plus, the Overwatch IP belongs to Microsoft, and I doubt Microsoft will let the IP die considering the potential it has, but it is something that could happen, and in such case, the Overwatch 2 servers would be closed, meaning there will be no more way to play Overwatch, simply, the entire Overwatch universe would disappear and it would become a simple memory, only the internet will be able to show us that Overwatch ever existed once, of course, this would be the worst possible case scenario, which I sincerely doubt will happen, but as I say, there is a possibility you know.
Keep in mind that Overwatch 2 has tough competition like Paladins, CS Go and even Valorant which are already established and hardly Overwatch 2 will be able to overshadow them, not if they do everything wrong this time.
Much is said that the future of video games is in services and the cloud, but is this really the future of video games? If so, then what a dystopian future, not being able to play video games from the past that you want to remember because said company no longer supports such server which hosts the game, it is certainly a future that I would not like to be a part of, but anyway, these are just thoughts, who knows what the future will hold for us, we may not even be alive when that time comes.
Anyway, this has affected me on a personal level, more than I'd like to admit and I'm not sure why, I think it's due to the fact that I've played Overwatch like three times and that out of nowhere they took away the opportunity to return to that game in the future, it's kind of creepy. Yes, I know, Overwatch 2 will be free to play and in theory, you will not lose the money that you invested in the game. Still, I can't help but fret over this fact, a videogame which won game of the year in 2016 is just going to disappear, man, that sucks.
Personally, I hope Overwatch 2 does well, I can't help but think that Activision Blizzard's marketing has been bad, I've seen that many people don't even know that there will be a sequel, they do not even know that it will be free to play.
