Overwatch 2 will henceforth be known as Overwatch, Blizzard has announced, as it outlines a major new plan that will revolve around free, annual, expansion-like releases for the game. The first of these – The Reign of Talon – arrives next week, on Tuesday, 10th February.

The undeniable headline feature is adding five new heroes at once, which is the largest new-hero-drop Overwatch has ever had – two more than Overwatch 2 launched with. Then, a further five heroes will be added throughout 2026, one in each Reign of Talon season (from season 2-6), taking the total new-hero count this year to 10. For Overwatch, that release-pace is unprecedented.

The new five new heroes are spread across all character roles. They are:

• Domina, a tank who’s a little like Zarya,
• Emre, a damage dealer who’s a lot like Soldier 76,
• Mizuki, a support who has a magical healing hat he throws,
• Anran, a damage dealer who sets people on fire and then literally fans the flames to deal damage to them, and
• Jetpack Cat, a long-rumoured support who permanently flies and can tow team-mates and enemies through the air.

I have played all of these heroes and shared my thoughts on them in a longer Overwatch revamp article.

The switch to a yearly focus has had a major knock-on effect for story, allowing Blizzard to move from a smaller piecemeal storytelling formula to one shaped over the course of a year, affording a much more ambitious and dramatic scope. Six ‘season’ releases are planned for Reign of Talon, and the game’s season-count will be reset to one (from 20) to coincide with it.

The story will be told in familiar ways to Overwatch, through a mix of cinematic videos and animated comics, but you’ll now be able to see and track this inside of the game, and to feel the effects of it as you play. Characters will refer to story events in voice lines, and some maps will be altered to reflect what’s been going on. Watchpoint: Gibraltar will be the first of these, and it will change structurally following an invasion by Talon’s evil forces when The Reign of Talon begins.

Showcasing all of this will be a five-week story event called Conquest, which will allow players to side with either Overwatch or Talon in a faction war. You pick a side and carry out objectives for them, earning points for the faction and rewards for yourself.

There’s still more: Overwatch is getting a full-on user interface overhaul for Reign of Talon to better organise the information the game presents to you, and to enable a 3D hero lobby, which will expand to a full party lobby in Season 4.

There are sub-roles being added to the hero roster as well, which not only help break-up the rapidly expanding roster visually, but give gameplay perks depending on the sub-role you choose. A Flanker like Tracer gets more health from health packs, for example, whereas a Medic like Moira heals themselves while healing others.

Elsewhere, Stadium – the recently added MOBA-like ‘develop your character as you play’ mode – is getting an icon overhaul, and a build helper for newer players.

Blizzard has also said we should also expect two new core maps during the Reign of Talon year, as well as the reintroduction of post-match accolades and reworks for existing heroes (Blizzard wouldn’t tell me which ones). There’s a dedicated Switch 2 release that will launch with Season 2, which hasn’t been dated, but I expect will arrive sometime in April.

It’s a bold and headline-grabbing change for Overwatch 2, which struggled to convince players a few years ago when it launched. More importantly, it makes Overwatch 2 exciting again.