Disclaimer: Activision Blizzard (ABK) is currently undergoing investigation for illegal workplace practices and unethical treatment of its employees. Current ABK CEO Bobby Kotick has been implicated in these practices and has been directly accused of committing illegal and unethical acts in addition to enabling such actions of other executives and leaders as ABK. Recently, Quality Assurance developers at Raven Software (a subsidiary of ABK) won their fight to unionize, which ABK has now officially recognized. You can learn more about their union, Game Workers Alliance, on their website.

Activision Blizzard (ABK) took to the stage earlier today during the Xbox + Bethesda Showcase to give players a fresh look at Overwatch 2, the upcoming sequel to their 2016 hit. The new trailer showed a mix of cinematics and gameplay before revealing that the game will be free-to-play and will enter Early Access this October. According to the official Overwatch site, the Early Access period will only consist of the PvP modes, with the PvE content presumably arriving at a later date.

ABK followed this up with a look at the latest hero to join the Overwatch roster: Junker Queen, a cheeky, kiwi brawler who wields a gun in one hand and a magnetic axe in the other. Her cinematic intro showed her stepping into an arena with other combatants as she narrates the video and tosses sidelong looks into the camera.

The Overwatch Twitter account also confirmed that there will be an Overwatch 2 reveal event on June 16th, 2022 at 10 AM PT/1 PM ET. No specific details were provided about the reveal event other than that it will provide more info on the game’s forthcoming release.

Overwatch 2 will launch on October 4th, 2022, for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC. For more from the Xbox + Bethesda Showcase, check out how Atlus is bringing the Persona series to Xbox for the first time.