Overwatch 2 Will Replace The Original Overwatch When It Enters Early Access

gameinformer.com:

In a recent Reddit AMA, the Overwatch 2 team from Blizzard Entertainment took questions from the community regarding the state of the franchise and the upcoming pseudo-sequel to its popular hero shooter. In one answer, the folks from Blizz confirm an interesting detail about OW2 when it hits Early Access in the first week of October: it’ll replace the original Overwatch entirely.

Rather than being a separate app on your console of choice or the Blizzard launcher, Overwatch 2 won’t be built up bit by bit on its own but will take the place of the original game and build off of that instead.

While Overwatch 1 and 2 have always been planned to be tied together into a single client and overall roadmap, this is the first time Blizzard has announced publically that Overwatch 1 will cease to exist entirely when the sequel launches. Get your 6v6 games in now because they won’t be playable as of the OW2 Early Access launch.

Also of note from this quote is the timeframe of PvE content coming to OW2. Its initial Early Access content this year will provide a revamp to the PvP experience with new heroes, maps, modes, etc., but the long-touted narrative content for the sequel will be coming sometime in 2023 instead of with the rest of the package.

Overwatch 2 will be free-to-play starting on October 4 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC.