Blizzard has finally announced a proper Switch 2 version of Overwatch – the game formerly known as Overwatch 2 – which it plans to release alongside the second season of The Reign of Talon this year. The current estimate for this is mid-April, Blizzard told me this afternoon.

The Reign of Talon is the year-long event that begins 10th February with an expansion-like release, which, among other things, introduces five new heroes to the game, overhauls the user interface, and brings story inside the game and makes a big fuss of it. There will also be five more heroes added over the course of 2026 – one in each of the five proceeding Reign of Talon seasons.

You can already play Overwatch (as in, Overwatch 2) on Switch, incidentally, but not in a way that’s optimised to take advantage of Nintendo’s newer and more powerful hardware. Presumably, we’ll see much needed performance gains when the game is optimised, but could we also see support for some of the Switch 2’s quirkier features like its mouse-pointer controls? We’ll see.

Today is a big day for Overwatch, as Blizzard announces a bold new vision for the game and – perhaps most significantly – drops the tainted “2” from the game’s name. There is, as I explore in a separate Overwatch piece, much to be excited about.