Overwatch 2 Doing Everything It Can to Woo One Country It Was Initially Banned in as Marvel Rivals Pushes Blizzard Into Irrelevancy

The success Marvel Rivals has managed to achieve in just a month of its release is genuinely mind-boggling. With developer NetEase Games’ unique approach and the established Marvel IP and its incredible characters, the title has managed to breathe a new life into the hero-shooter genre.

NetEase has clearly put the king of the genre, Overwatch, to shame. Blizzard’s hero-shooter has been rapidly losing players, and gamers believe it won’t be long before the title reaches its end like Concord. However, Blizzard has one last trick up its sleeve, and that’s Overwatch 2‘s return to China with a number of special events.

Overwatch 2 is making a return to China with a bang

If you’ve forgotten already, back in January 2023, the contract between Blizzard and NetEase ended, which meant that every game developed by the former would be unavailable to download and play in China. This included titles such as Diablo 4, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch.

However, in April 2024, the companies set their differences aside and kicked off the process of returning Blizzard’s games to China. Now, Overwatch 2 is finally making a comeback to China. The general manager of the hero-shooter, Walter King, announced that the game would be coming to China on February 19th, 2025.

There was a technical test that ran from January 8th to 15th, giving Chinese players a chance to try everything they’ve missed, including Overwatch Classic and brand-new heroes. With the conclusion of the technical test, Overwatch 2 revealed that there are some exclusive events coming for Chinese players.

According to Overwatch 2‘s game director, Aaron Keller, on RedNote, there will be a multi-week Return to China celebration. This will include all the events and rewards that gamers in China have missed over the past two years. That’s not all; all Chinese Players will have the chance to get Battle Pass rewards from Seasons 1 and 2 ahead of the rerelease and Seasons 3 to 9 via in-game events.

Keller suggests that the upcoming season of Overwatch would contain a number of skin bundles that take root in Chinese mythology. It’s still unclear if these skins will be the existing ones or something completely new and exclusive to China.

Considering the fact that China has the world’s largest gaming audience, it’s not surprising that Blizzard is pushing this hard to relaunch Overwatch 2 in this market. With special events and exclusive rewards, Blizzard is hoping to steal the market that’s currently dominated by Marvel Rivals in China.

It’s time for Overwatch 2 to bring map rotation

It’s great to see Blizzard catering to Chinese players and helping them get back to Overwatch 2. However, the company must start taking note of players’ concerns and demands. The community has been calling for a number of changes, and one of them is map rotation.

With map rotation, classic maps that we’ve all grown to love will appear more often in Overwatch 2 matches. Gamers can’t help but wonder why Blizzard hasn’t implemented such a simple thing and doesn’t allow players to enjoy maps such as King’s Row and Eichenwald.

DEVS can we get MORE chances to play the classic OW maps like King’s Row and Eichenwald? Barely see them.
byu/spicedpumpkins inOverwatch

The majority of the player base has noted that maps that are actually fun to play on, such as King’s Row, appear maybe once or twice a week. On the other hand, Samoa, one of the latest maps, appears on a daily basis. The constant matches in New Junk City and Survasa are making players frustrated.

Let’s hope that Blizzard can listen to players and finally implement map rotations in Overwatch. Otherwise, players wouldn’t stop flocking to its biggest rival, which is doing everything that gamers demand.

With that said, are you excited about Overwatch 2‘s return to China? Let us know in the comments below.