Blizzard’s absurdly successful shooter Overwatch is going free-to-play next weekend, the developer has announced. From September 9 to 12, all Xbox One and PlayStation 4 owners can download the entire game (9GB file size on PS4, 15GB on Xbox One) and play to their heart’s content without having to spend a penny. Xbox players will require a Gold membership in order to download the competitive shooter; PlayStation Plus is not required for PS4 players.
For all intents and purposes, the trial you’ll be playing should you decide to give Overwatch a go represents the full game – all 22 heroes and 13 maps will be available to try over the weekend, along with the Quick Play, Vs. AI, Custom Game and Weekly Brawl modes.
As the trial is clearly intended to draw in more players who may have perhaps been on the fence in the past, there’ll be no restrictions in place for levelling and you won’t be locked out of earning Loot Boxes – rewards handed out for levelling up that can contain character skins, gestures and emblems.
If you’re bitten by the Overwatch bug during the free trial period and decide to take the plunge and buy the full game, Blizzard says all progress made during the trial will carry over as long as you played both on the same console.
To make the most of the promotion, you’ll want to have your console on and ready to download Overwatch at 11:00 am PT/2:00 pm EST, next Friday.
