Overwatch Beta Will Invite "Lots More Players" For Weekend Stress Test

Blizzard will be conducting its first beta weekend for its team-based shooter Overwatch. Although an invite will still be required for access, the studio has suggested it will be inviting a large amount of new players. The event will take place from November 20 to November 23 and is primarily focused on stress testing Blizzard's servers.

"During this three-day event, we’ll be opening up Overwatch beta (for a limited time) to a lot more players from our Americas and Europe gameplay regions," it said. "The objective [is to] help us stress test our server hardware and technology .. and make a few Plays of the Game in the process."

During this beta test weekend, players will be able to select the full roster of 21 heroes, and play on a limited selection of the game's maps, including Hanamura, King’s Row, and Watchpoint: Gibraltar.

"Since this is a stress test, we’re primarily interested in your technical feedback," Blizzard continued. "Like how Overwatch runs on your system, your experience with the beta servers, critical bug reports, and other game-impacting problems. One of our goals is to push our hardware to the limit, so don’t be surprised if you experience performance issues or run into unexpected downtime--that’s all part of the process."

Those that will be invited into the beta test weekend will have their accounts "flagged" during a scheduled maintenance on November 19. Blizzard has advised newcomers to "use this additional time to download and install the beta client so you can be ready for action once servers come back online."

During Blizzard's BlizzCon opening ceremony on November 6, it officially confirmed that Overwatch is coming to PS4 and Xbox One as Overwatch: Origins Edition. It is scheduled to launch in spring 2016, on the same day that the PC version arrives.

According to the game's website, the standard edition of Overwatch will cost $40 on PC. The Origins Edition, however, costs $60. In addition,GameStop's website has listed a $130 collector's edition.