Overwatch Competitive Mode Out Now on PC, Hitting PS4 and Xbox One Next Week

Overwatch's competitive mode is out today, but only on PC. The highly anticipated mode comes to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One next week, Blizzard announced today.

"We don't have an exact date to share, but we can confirm that the patch is going through approvals right now on both platforms," the company said in a forum post about the console release.

Blizzard added that it understands this "isn't an ideal way to deliver new content." To that end, Blizzard said it hopes to "continue to refine" its patching processes in an effort to "sync up our release dates across platforms as closely possible."

While Battle.net for PC is "more agile," Blizzard said it hopes Overwatch can reach a point, eventually, when major updates are released across all platforms at the same time.

Another piece of news Blizzard shared today was the Overwatch's first Competitive Play season will be shorter than expected. It will span two months instead of three.

"This is because our Competitive Play patch is launching in the middle of the summer 2016 season, which technically began on June 1 (a minor side-effect of our real-world season system)," Blizzard said. "As a result, our inaugural season will include approximately 1.5 months of play rather than the full 2.5 months, ending on August 18 across all platforms. The Fall 2016 season will then begin as scheduled following our standard two-week off-season break."

As for why Blizzard was OK with a shorter season, Blizzard said there are two main reasons.

"One, we want players to be able to start working towards their Competitive Play rewards as soon as possible," the developer explained. "And two, we believe this first season will teach us a lot of about what works well, what doesn't, and what players are really looking for from a competitive system in Overwatch. Competitive Play is definitely one of those features that will take us a few iterations to get right, and by getting the system out there sooner, we can start making improvements based on your feedback sooner too."

For more on Overwatch's Competitive Play mode, check out GameSpot's previous coverage. Keep checking back with GameSpot for even more in the days ahead.