Overwatch 2's PC-exclusive beta system requirements have been revealed

[Polycount]

Highly anticipated: Overwatch took the multiplayer shooter genre by storm when it launched in 2016. It quickly grew in popularity and has since become a worldwide phenomenon, with entire eSports leagues and teams sprouting up around it. However, developer Blizzard Entertainment has seen fit to develop a sequel, Overwatch 2, which is officially receiving its first-ever semi-public beta next month.

Come April 26, Overwatch fans will finally be able to take the game's sequel for a spin. That's great news, too: after years of development (Overwatch 2 was first announced in 2019) and ongoing turmoil at Activision Blizzard HQ, the title's future seemed to be in limbo for a time. However, it looks like development has forged ahead despite Blizzard's troubles.

Overwatch 2 doesn't have a full release date yet, but you can sign up for the first-ever closed beta today and cross your fingers that you'll be one of the lucky few selected. This beta is only available to PC players, but Blizzard says there will be console betas in the future.

Beta invites are going out via email right now for anyone with a copy of Overwatch and an unsuspended Battle.net account. Blizzard doesn't have any strict selection criteria for the beta -- it says it's picking users based on their PC hardware specs, when they signed up, and their Battle.net region. Presumably, Blizzard wants a nice mix of players to determine how well the game runs on a variety of PC configurations.

#Overwatch2 PVP Beta is coming April 26.

✋ Beta Sign Up https://t.co/jC3gYjfdBc pic.twitter.com/FLVxCEtLZj

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) March 18, 2022

Speaking of how well the game runs, Blizzard has also released the beta's official system requirements. The "Minimum" requirements target 30 FPS and are as follows:

• Operating system: Windows® 7 / Windows® 8 / Windows® 10 64-bit (latest Service Pack)
• Processor: Intel® Core™ i3 or AMD Phenom™ X3 8650
• Video: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 600 series, AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 series
• Memory: 6 GB RAM
• Storage: 50 GB available hard drive space

The "Recommended" requirements target 60 FPS and Medium settings:

• Operating system: Windows® 10 64-bit (latest Service Pack)
• Processor: Intel® Core™ i7 or AMD Ryzen™ 5
• Video: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 or AMD R9 380
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Storage: 50 GB available hard drive space

Those aren't especially demanding requirements, and even those with lower-end hardware could probably eke out a 60 FPS experience by dropping Overwatch 2's settings from Medium to Low. It's unclear whether these requirements will change for Overwatch 2's full release or remain the same.

Overwatch 2's beta will be PvP-only, so don't expect to see any of the game's coop content on April 26. Blizzard will likely either save that for release or hold a separate beta to test out those systems.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/93847-overwatch-2-pc-exclusive-beta-system-requirements-have.html

 

[Burty117]

Why is the minimum Windows 7? An OS that hasn't been supported in years. Weird to support any piece of software running on an unsupported OS isn't it?

I'm signed up to the beta, hope I get in, I don't have a lot of faith it'll be any good but it'd be nice to be proven wrong.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Dang....they made Phenoms relavent again! And not even the better predecessor of them, the Phenom II.

Processor: Intel® Core™ i3 or AMD Phenom™ X3 8650

 

[AMDGeForceRX4090]

Why is the minimum Windows 7? An OS that hasn't been supported in years. Weird to support any piece of software running on an unsupported OS isn't it?

I'm signed up to the beta, hope I get in, I don't have a lot of faith it'll be any good but it'd be nice to be proven wrong.

Cause loads of people still use it?

 

[yRaz]

I hate battleroyale games so much. I'm not even against the genre, I'm against how the entire gaming industry is nothing but BR games. I'm not going to tell people what games to like(although I will tell you which games to dislike). There is such a thing called taste and preference but this whole thing where people flock to the new greatest thing ever has to stop. The Witcher 3 is objectively better than Skyrim in just about everyway but I still like Skyrim more.

Before you know it, Overwatch 2 will be an Elden Ring style RPG and you'll be collecting runes in the next Call of Duty game

 

[Skjorn]

I hate battleroyale games so much. I'm not even against the genre, I'm against how the entire gaming industry is nothing but BR games. I'm not going to tell people what games to like(although I will tell you which games to dislike). There is such a thing called taste and preference but this whole thing where people flock to the new greatest thing ever has to stop. The Witcher 3 is objectively better than Skyrim in just about everyway but I still like Skyrim more.

Before you know it, Overwatch 2 will be an Elden Ring style RPG and you'll be collecting runes in the next Call of Duty game

Who said battle royale?

 

[yRaz]

Who said battle royale?

Confused It with Fortnite, well I'm going to sit here and still be mad like I was correct anyway.

 

[Nobina]

They call it Overwatch 2 but it's more like a patch than a new game. Like many other games, it suffers from being owned by a soulless company run by suits that don't care about the product itself. They were talking big with OWL to create fake hype, embedding streams in their launcher making it appear more popular and all the tricks couldn't save it.

 

[emmzo]

They had to make it work on potato PC to maximize profits (more players), but it makes even more sense with how expansive components are at the moment.

 

[Burty117]

Cause loads of people still use it?

Do that many gamers use it? I can't find any evidence to suggest it's popular with gamers anymore.

And again, I'll repeat, it's an unsupported operating system, it should just be left to history now so we can move on with newer API's to make things better.

 

[Eldritch]

Do that many gamers use it? I can't find any evidence to suggest it's popular with gamers anymore.

And again, I'll repeat, it's an unsupported operating system, it should just be left to history now so we can move on with newer API's to make things better.

Why it's an issue if it's supported? If they aren't going out of their way to support it then it's great actually. Maybe it will be 1% of all gamers who are on Windows 7 but wouldn't that amount to at least hundreds of thousand extra potential players?

 

[Nobina]

Why it's an issue if it's supported? If they aren't going out of their way to support it then it's great actually. Maybe it will be 1% of all gamers who are on Windows 7 but wouldn't that amount to at least hundreds of thousand extra potential players?

No, dude, you must "progress"!

 

[Burty117]

Why it's an issue if it's supported? If they aren't going out of their way to support it then it's great actually. Maybe it will be 1% of all gamers who are on Windows 7 but wouldn't that amount to at least hundreds of thousand extra potential players?

Think about it from a support perspective, what happens if theirs issues which are out of their control and needs an update from manufacturer drivers? Not many are doing driver support for Windows 7 anymore.

Proper DX12 support so they can better utilize CPU and GPU resources.

It just doesn't make sense to me, it's old and unsupported, we've all let go of XP finally, when will the same happen to Windows 7?

 

[AMDGeForceRX4090]

Do that many gamers use it? I can't find any evidence to suggest it's popular with gamers anymore.

And again, I'll repeat, it's an unsupported operating system, it should just be left to history now so we can move on with newer API's to make things better.

4% of Steam users still use it. That's quite a lot of gamers.

 

[Hexic]

About dang time. Hopefully it'll be good, I have some reservations but hopefully Geoff was there long enough for the OW2 Development to lay a solid groundwork for the rest of the team to pick up and carry on.

 

[Sausagemeat]

Think about it from a support perspective, what happens if theirs issues which are out of their control and needs an update from manufacturer drivers? Not many are doing driver support for Windows 7 anymore.

Proper DX12 support so they can better utilize CPU and GPU resources.

It just doesn't make sense to me, it's old and unsupported, we've all let go of XP finally, when will the same happen to Windows 7?

My suggestion is to write to the developers. Clearly you know how to make their game better than they do, maybe at the same time you can pay to upgrade all the hundreds of thousands of users who are still on windows 7?

 

[Burty117]

My suggestion is to write to the developers. Clearly you know how to make their game better than they do, maybe at the same time you can pay to upgrade all the hundreds of thousands of users who are still on windows 7?

Upgrading to Windows 10 is free, it doesn't cost anything.

Even if you aren't going to make the game any better with newer API, why would you entertain supporting an unsupported OS? As I said above, what happens if you run into issues where you need driver updates potentially?

You're also encouraging the use of an OS that doesn't receive security updates. That's just a bad idea all round.

 

[Sausagemeat]

Upgrading to Windows 10 is free, it doesn't cost anything.

Even if you aren't going to make the game any better with newer API, why would you entertain supporting an unsupported OS? As I said above, what happens if you run into issues where you need driver updates potentially?

You're also encouraging the use of an OS that doesn't receive security updates. That's just a bad idea all round.

You seem to be having great difficulty wrapping your head around the incredibly simple concept that software developers place revenue and sales above all else. They include support for Windows 7 because many of their potential customers are still using it. Why? Well a lot of people don’t care and can’t be bothered to upgrade. Others want more privacy, there’s far more analytics on users sent to MS on Windows 10. Perhaps you should chase down the millions still using Windows 7 and teach them a lesson?

I’m not encouraging anything. You just seem genuinely shocked at the status quo. I’m guessing you must be new to all this..

 

[Burty117]

You seem to be having great difficulty wrapping your head around the incredibly simple concept that software developers place revenue and sales above all else. They include support for Windows 7 because many of their potential customers are still using it. Why? Well a lot of people don’t care and can’t be bothered to upgrade. Others want more privacy, there’s far more analytics on users sent to MS on Windows 10. Perhaps you should chase down the millions still using Windows 7 and teach them a lesson?

I’m not encouraging anything. You just seem genuinely shocked at the status quo. I’m guessing you must be new to all this..

So should we be asking motherboard manufacturers to still be making drivers for Windows 7? Nvidia appears to have dropped support for Windows 7, will a driver update need to be made to support the game?

How about the anti-cheat? If a flaw in the OS is found that can circumvent the anti-cheat, is Microsoft going to release a security update that fixes it?

Do you see where I'm going with this? Or we sticking to "moar monez" regardless of the fact the group of Windows 7 gamers is small these days?

Linux might end up being a bigger market than Windows 7 by the end of the year, depending on how many Decks Valve can pump out, what are the chances of them making a native Linux version? Well, they probably will for the PS5/Switch but they'll pretend they can't make a native Linux version for PC.

Here's a question though, if we're still encouraging companies such as this to release stuff on Windows 7, when do we move on? I remember these very forums of people really not willing to leave XP behind. Thankfully that OS is dead and buried in history, when is it time for Windows 7 to also be buried? You can't use excuses like "People want moar privacy" when XP also had "more privacy" and people who care so deeply about their privacy probably use something actually private like Linux.

 

[erickmendes]

No, dude, you must "progress"!

In the PCMRverse we call it ascend.