Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 Delayed Indefinitely

Multiple lawsuits, employee walkouts, and executives stepping down have marked a tumultuous and controversial year for Blizzard. As a result, Blizzard has announced Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 are being delayed, with no release date set.

The bad news came courtesy of a Blizzard earnings call, with a slide being shared by Axios reporter Stephen Totilo on Twitter. In it, Blizzard states, “While we are still planning to deliver a substantial amount of content from Blizzard next year, we are now planning for a later launch for Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV than originally envisaged.”

Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 delayed pic.twitter.com/4pr9c0OEdz
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) November 2, 2021

The delay isn’t surprising since neither game had announced release dates. In a February earnings call, Blizzard revealed that neither game would come out in 2021, making 2022 the earliest possible release window at the time. With the games officially delayed now, it seems likely fans won’t be playing these titles until 2023 at the earliest.

While news of a Diablo IV delay is annoying, fans can at least sit back and enjoy Diablo II: Resurrected, which had a rocky start but now faithfully recreates this classic gaming experience. However, Overwatch fans are getting a bit more nervous.

Overwatch 2 was originally going to be focused on PvE. Now, it looks to focus more on PvP, though Blizzard controversially announced that the game will be switching to 5v5 instead of 6v6 and only feature one Tank role per team. Furthermore, the original Overwatch has ceased getting new characters or maps while Blizzard focuses on Overwatch 2.

Long story short? Overwatch 2 is likely to come out no earlier than seven years after the original game, and that original game (which suffers from baffling character adjustments, long role queues, and annoying competitive matches) may be largely abandoned by then. Time will tell whether the Overwatch IP will manage to survive all these delays and behind-the-scenes Blizzard drama.