Want To Try Overwatch Before Buying It? Here Is Your Chance

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Overwatch has again come up with a four-day free weekend. The Overwatch free weekend, which starts on August 23, would allow players to access all 28 characters and every map across the consoles and platforms – such as PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. Just last month, Blizzard offered a free weekend exclusively for the PC in honor of the inaugural Overwatch League Grand Finals.

Overwatch free weekend – how to prepare?

The Overwatch free weekend will start at 11 a.m. PDT on Thursday, August 23 and continue until Monday, Aug 27 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. Once the free hours are over, the players would be able to save the progress made if they decide to buy the Overwatch Legendary Edition on the console or any version of Overwatch on PC.

“For this free weekend, we’re making Overwatch’s full roster of 28 heroes—along with the newly released Wrecking Ball—and 18 maps available for play in a variety of modes, including Quick Play, Custom Games, and the Arcade,” Blizzard says in its announcement of the Overwatch free weekend.

PC players can access Battle.net client to download the Overwatch free of cost. For the PS4 players, the game is in the PlayStation Store under “Overwatch Free Weekend.” The Xbox One Players can download “Overwatch: Origins Edition” in the Xbox One Store and select the “Free Trial” button. Also, a pre-requisite for the free version is that the player must have a valid PS+ or Xbox Live Gold subscription.

Other than the stats, the players would also be able to earn summer games loot boxes during the Overwatch free weekend. The trophies and achievements would not be available for the Overwatch free weekend, plus there would be no PC/PS4 cross-platform play. Blizzard has already made pre-loading available on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The PC players, however, would have to wait until August 23 to install the client on the PC.

Events and toys to promote Overwatch

To promote the game further, Blizzard will also host an Overwatch Fan Festival event in Seoul, South Korea on August 22 and 23, and LEGO would reportedly be present at the event. Just a couple of weeks ago, LEGO displayed an Overwatch page on its website clubbed with an image reading “LEGO Overwatch-Coming Soon.” It is expected that at the Overwatch Fan Festival, the game maker might reveal their first physical LEGO Overwatch products.

Activision revealed its intention to release the Overwatch LEGO in May after Blizzard entered in collaboration with LEGO for a toy-brick version of the game. With partnerships like this, the game publisher aims to extend its Overwatch merchandising program with LEGO after having a successful collaboration with Nerf for various themed toy guns to be released next year.

Blizzard’s new Overwatch LEGO sets would simply add to the merchandise already available. Fans are able to buy all the items related to their favorite Overwatch heroes and anything from plushies to Funko pop figures. The event may witness other Overwatch merchandise vendors as well such as Nerf, and Good Smile Company.

Meanwhile, for its next week’s Gamescom event, Blizzard has promised new Overwatch content. However, there is suspense over what the content could be. The game only recently got a new hero, Wrecking Ball, but expectations are that one more hero could be added to the growing lineup. Other than Overwatch, Blizzard would also talk about Diablo, Heroes of the Storm, World of Warcraft and Starcraft.

Further, there would be a quiz held between every segment, and the Diablo section would be the most interesting as it would be an hour-long event. Recently, Blizzard revealed that there are “multiple” Diablo projects in the works, but how much Blizzard will reveal at the event is yet to be seen.

Will Overwatch come to Switch?

For a long time, Nintendo Switch players have been feeling ignored with Overwatch available on every console but the Switch. However, Diablo III arrival on the Switch suggests that Blizzard might introduce its other games to the hybrid console as well.

Overwatch, the popular team-based shooter game, has been long awaited and could be a possibility, according to Blizzard Senior Producer Pete Stilwell. However, the final decision would be that of Overwatch’s development team.

“Anything is within the realm of possibility,” he said. “Our team was given the task to work on this. If [Overwatch developer] Team 4 picks up that endeavor, that’s on them. As of right now Diablo is our only focus on Switch,” Stilwell told Gamespot while talking about the Diablo III port.

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