Overwatch 2 What’s Next livestream: How to watch and what to expect from it

By Joseph Yaden Published May 18, 2021

The upcoming Overwatch 2 “What’s Next” livestream will debut this week and it aims to show off some of the game’s new features. What’s Next will be hosted by Matt “Mr. X” Morello and Mitch “Uber” Leslie from the Overwatch League, and they’ll be joined by Overwatch 2 developers to discuss the new hero shooter. Here’s how you can watch the event and what to expect from it.

When is the Overwatch 2 What’s Next livestream?

The Overwatch 2 What’s Next event will air at noon PT/3 p.m. ET on Thursday, May 20. It’s expected to last around two hours and will feature director Aaron Keller, associate art director Dion Rogers, and lead hero designer Geoff Goodman, along with the show’s prolific hosts.

Recommended Videos

Where can I watch the livestream?

As with many digital showcases like these, you can watch it on the publisher’s YouTube and Twitch channels. The livestream will be the same regardless of which platform you choose.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

What will be shown during the What’s Next event?

While Blizzard won’t give away everything it will show during the event ahead of time, we do know What’s Next will debut some of Overwatch 2’s PvP. This is particularly noteworthy since Blizzard has mostly focused on the game’s cooperative and story components thus far. Aaron Keller explained that PvP is still “at the core of what makes Overwatch 2 feel so special,” much like the first entry.

The What’s Next event will showcase new maps, and as Keller notes, the team plans to discuss the ideas behind PvP changes with the new entry. To set expectations, Keller warned that everything that will be shown is a work in progress. Considering the timeline of the game’s development, it’s highly unlikely Blizzard will reveal the game’s release date during this event.

Topics

Joseph Yaden is a freelance journalist who covers Nintendo, shooters, and horror games. He mostly covers game guides for…

Gaming

Overwatch Classic is bringing 6v6 back — and that’s not all

D.Va out of her mech and in the air shooting her gun in Overwatch.

Blizzard has officially announced how it's bringing 6v6 back to Overwatch, and it's definitely more than what we expected. Beyond just bringing the old ways back to the game after removing them for Overwatch 2, Blizzard has announced a new event called Overwatch Classic that will reflect what the game was like with Overwatch 1.0.

Before Ana and Sombra, before defense and tank were one class, and before added game modes, Overwatch redefined the hero shooter and conquered the genre for years (although that might be changing soon with Marvel Rivals and Deadlock on the horizon). Over time, the developers have fine-tuned the heroes, changed a lot of their move sets, and introduced changes in an attempt to give all classes a chance and to remove the possibility of players building unbalanced metas.

Gaming

Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct: How to watch and what to expect

Key art for World of Warcraft: The War Within.

Blizzard Entertainment has had an eventful year. Following Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the studio has seen the successful releases of World of Warcraft: The War Within and Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred but also had to deal with mass layoffs and the release of Jason Schreier's revealing book Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment. To cap off this hectic year, and in lieu of its traditional BlizzCon event, Blizzard Entertainment is holding a Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct livestream this week.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is the game that put Blizzard on the map, and it was first released on November 15, 1994. Thirty years later, the franchise has expanded with games like World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, and Warcraft Rumble. Now, Blizzard is going to celebrate them all during a single livestream. It's something that Warcraft fans will certainly want to tune into. For those interested, I've rounded up everything you need to know about how to watch the Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct and what you should expect from it.
When is the Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct?
The Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct will begin at 10 a.m. PT on November 13. Blizzard has not said how long the Direct will last, but has confirmed that a World of Warcraft: 20 Years of Music concert will air right after the show concludes.
How to watch the Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct
The first showcase of its kind, the Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct will air on World of Warcraft's YouTube channel and the Warcraft Twitch and TikTok channels. As soon as the YouTube premiere for the event goes live, I'll embed it above so you can watch the Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct on this page. On Twitch, Blizzard also plans to give away in-game rewards for World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, and Warcraft Rumble to viewers.

Gaming

Battle Aces was born from a rejected StarCraft 2 expansion pitch

Art from the reveal trailer for Battle Aces.

The fast-paced real-time strategy (RTS) game Battle Aces was inspired by an idea that game director David Kim had while working on StarCraft 2 at Blizzard Entertainment.

“Why can’t there be an RTS game that gets rid of all these tedious clicks and focuses on the fun factors?” Kim recalled thinking. “There was a point during Legacy of the Void’s development where we seriously considered cleaning up all of those things and made an RTS game that’s really focused on the fun. But the conclusion was that we should not switch up what StarCraft 2 is on the last expansion of the game.”