Everything You Should Do Before Overwatch 2 Launches

Overwatch 2 is right around the corner, but there's a bit of prep-work you should probably do to get ready for it.

For those looking to pre-download the game, if you play on console, you'll be able to do so from 9 AM PT / 12 AM ET on October 4. Whereas if you're on PC and own the Watchpoint Pack, you'll be able to do so a bit earlier, with pre-download being available tomorrow (September 30) at 1:30 PM PT / 4:30 PM ET. If you have automatic downloads setup, it should just do so on its own.

You also might have heard that Overwatch 2 will require you to link a phone number to your Battle.net account, which is supposed to prevent bad actors using cheats and cycling through multiple additional accounts that share the same phone number. Now Blizzard has made it so that you can only have one number per account. So if you're happy to do so, it's advised you add that now so you're ready to play on launch.

Lastly, you'll want to merge your accounts as Overwatch 2 has cross-progression, meaning no matter where you play you'll have all of your achievements and in-game cosmetics grouped together.

Keep in mind that Overwatch is completely shutting down on October 2, with the following day being an all-day blackout to prepare the servers for launch on October 4.

In GameSpot's in-progress Overwatch 2 review, we felt that the game "feels like a fantastic update to a multiplayer game with mechanics that enable thrilling skirmishes between teams of heroes," but it stumbles as a sequel, with some changes that have added "new points of friction where there previously were none."