Overwatch's Competitive Mode Is Not Delayed [UPDATE]

[UPDATE] This was a mix-up. The Overwatch Twitter account today sent out the message below, confirming that Competitive Play is still on schedule to come out in June.

The original story is below.

Overwatch's ranked competitive mode will launch in July, instead of its previously suggested June window, Blizzard has confirmed.

Responding to a Twitter message asking about competitive seasons, the official Overwatch account said Blizzard will be "introducing our Competitive Play (hopefully) in later July."

It followed up with clarification that the studio is currently aiming for "mid-to-late July."

In May, Blizzard revealed it had decided to hold back Overwatch's competitive mode when the game was launched in order to redesign it.

"We worked extremely hard to get competitive play in the game for closed beta," designer Jeff Kaplan previously said. "We've been reading feedback from the community and taking it all to heart. As a result, we've temporarily disabled competitive play for open beta so that we can rework the system and make it better."

Overwatch's competitive play option was part of the game's beta and allowed players at level 25 to rank up through a series of divisions and tiers. As they progressed higher up the ranks, new rewards such as sprays, player icons, and voice lines were also unlocked.

A penalty system to punish players that leave in the middle of matches was also tested in the beta. Those who abandoned games had their completion percentage lowered; once it dropped below a threshold, they received a warning. If they continued to to leave games early, they were docked 75 percent of the collected experience in future games.

As of yet, it's not clear what will be changed for the new competitive mode, but Blizzard has discussed its approach to ranked matchmaking in depth.

Blizzard's Overwatch debuted at No.1 on the UK sales chart and became the fastest selling console title the studio has released. Overwatch launched on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

You can check out GameSpot's Overwatch review for more details about the game, and we've also got tips for playing every character effectively.

You can also check out the comprehensive guide to every Overwatch character on GameSpot's YouTube page.