An Overwatch mobile game appears to be in development at Blizzard, according to comments made by Dexerto’s Editor At Large Richard Lewis during The Four Horsemen podcast.
During the March 19 episode, Lewis, along with Christopher ‘MonteCristo’ Mykles, Duncan ‘Thorin’ Shields and Erik ‘DoA’ Lonnquist were discussing the major layoffs at Activision Blizzard and their impact on OWL and CDL.
The topic eventually shifted to mobile gaming and its massive growth in the industry, especially in the East. This is when Lewis revealed that Blizzard had plans to release a mobile version of Overwatch with Overwatch 2.
“I have it on good authority that the original plan before the pandemic really kicked everything into survival mode was that they wanted to release Overwatch 2 and Overwatch Mobile at the same time essentially,” he explained.
Lewis told us that Blizzard “wanted a mobile version of the game to be ready to go when Overwatch 2 was released with a view to announce it prior to the game’s release.”
A mobile version of Blizzard’s iconic hero shooter has been rumored for quite some time. During a 2020 investors call, Blizzard President and COO Daniel Alegre explained how tapping into the mobile market was of utmost importance.
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“We need to make sure that we’re enabling our franchises on the billions of mobile devices that are available right now,” he said. “That’s by far our biggest opportunity and we’re investing meaningfully to capitalize on this and to take all our franchises to mobile over time.”
Furthermore, in a Reddit AMA, Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan stated that the team has “years of lore planned” and is “excited about telling stories in new ways and using new mediums.”
While this talk of “new mediums” could mean anything from books to movies and even TV shows, one other possibility, of course, is a mobile game.
It’s unclear what exactly a mobile version of Overwatch would entail and if it would be a complete replica of the Overwatch 2’s PvE or PvE.
Overwatch 2 still does not have a release date, so we’ll have to wait and see what the future holds and if Blizzard is sticking with their plan to release the mobile version at the same time.