Everything In Overwatch 2 Season 4: Possible Release Date, New Heroes, Battle Pass, And Map Changes
Unlike the old model of adding a new Hero with each season, Overwatch 2's seasonal updates have officially changed, as further proven by Season 3. Furthermore, Blizzard will be focusing more on a specific aspect with every new season of Overwatch 2.
The focal point of Season 3 was the Antarctic Peninsula, and Blizzard Entertainment has already given players an idea of the kind of content they should expect to see when it comes to Overwatch 2 Season 4.
In this article, we will discuss everything regarding Season 4 of Overwatch 2, including its map changes, Battle Pass, new Heroes, and possible release date. So, without further ado, let’s get into it!
Overwatch 2 Season 4: Release date
Overwatch 2 Season 4 will release on the 12th of April, 2023. Every season of Overwatch 2 has lasted for about 9 weeks, or 64 days to be more exact. Furthermore, the in-game countdown timer also lines up with this information.
Of course, there are no certainties when it comes to live season content, and things could change at any time, so you will also be informed of that.
Overwatch 2 Season 4: New Hero
Overwatch 2 Season 4 will feature a new hero and a new map as part of the new push towards alternating maps and heroes. Currently, in the game, there has been no word regarding who this mystery character is that will be joining Season 1’s Ramattra as a new seasonal face to join the roster.
Nevertheless, Game Director Aaron Keller of Overwatch 2 did confirm with NME back in January 2023 that the next two Heroes will be Support additions.
“We’re really focusing on Supports right now – the next two Heroes we’re going to be released are Support Heroes,” said Keller, who also acknowledged that there are much fewer Support characters as compared to other roles.
Overwatch 2 Season 4: Map Changes
A new Hero means that there will not be any new maps in Overwatch 2 Season 4. However, on the other hand, there will be a significant change arriving in the season since the game is doing away with map pools moving forward.
Aaron Keller had this to say in a Blizzard blog post that was posted on 3rd February 2023: “Map Pools are going away starting in Season 4. We aimed to provide a bit of freshness each season and concentrate the number of maps that people were playing, however player sentiment around map pools was pretty low, the map roster doesn’t have enough maps where we truly need them, and the impact they had on seasonal identity was fairly low.”
The Director also confirmed that the team is looking into possible changes to existing maps in order to solve a few common issues during matches.
“Do you ever spawn on defense in Gibraltar right before the first checkpoint is reached and wonder whether you’ll get back to your team alive without getting caught outside of spawn? This problem has gone on too long. We’ve looked into level design changes to fix this problem in several maps, and will probably use that in a few places, but those have the possibility of opening new flanking routes for the offense that we’d prefer to avoid. So, we’re talking about solutions that don’t necessitate map changes,” said Keller.
He also said that it was unlikely that these changes would arrive with the release of Season 4, but never say never.
Overwatch 2 Season 4: Buffs, Nerfs & Competitive Changes
Each seasonal Overwatch 2 update comes equipped with different buffs and nerfs that tinker with the state of the game’s Heroes. Overwatch 2 Season 4 is more likely to do the exact same thing, and the developers normally give hints about balancing the closer we get to the release of the season.
One area we expect to receive a substantial overhaul is the Competitive mode of the game, which has been a rollercoaster of emotions ever since the launch of Overwatch 2.
The developers have also confirmed that skill rating Tier updates will be modified to reflect your ranking based on more recent performances.
There is another area of concern that has been around Overwatch 2, which is the apparent lack of punishment for players who leave the Ranked games early.
A Systems Designer at Blizzard Entertainment confirmed that they are looking into this: “We’re considering making ranked penalties partially carry over from season to season, and we’d like to make sure that leaving games is never optimal for progressing challenges regardless of whether you’re in ranked or unranked.”
Overwatch 2 Season 4: New Battle Pass
However, there are some areas that are set to be changed in Overwatch 2 Season 4. One thing that is expected to stay the same in the game is the idea of the Battle Pass.
A brand-new seasonal pass is expected to debut along with the new season, and while there is not too much information on it just yet, it is fair to say that plenty of new cosmetics, such as skins and emotes, will be available to earn from it.
That is all that has been revealed so far regarding Overwatch 2 Season 2, so stay tuned for the exciting new season.
