Blizzard Is Bringing Its Games To Steam

Blizzard is coming to Steam, the publisher plans to release a select number of its titles on the PC platform in the coming months. This was announced today in a press release and on Twitter by Blizzard president Mike Ybarra. Overwatch 2 will be the first of Blizzard’s titles to release on Steam, and it will come to the platform on August 10th.

We've heard from players that they like games on Steam and have asked us to do the same. Players will always guide our way. We’re excited to be bringing Overwatch 2 to Steam – learn more here: https://t.co/0dckIfLz9w

Happy to partner with @valvesoftware and @Steam.

We will…

— Mike Ybarra (@Qwik) July 19, 2023

Blizzard says it will continue to support and release games on its Battle.net platform. The company says that Steam users will still have to connect their Steam account to Battle.net in order to play its games through Steam. Overwatch 2 players on Steam will be able to access Steam achievements and their Steam friends list and will have access to cross-play. 

The decision to expand the availability of Blizzard’s games could be influenced by Microsoft’s impending acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Microsoft has shown dedication to bringing its games to more platforms and streaming services, signing 10+ year deals with companies like Nvidia and Nintendo to appease regulators who are scrutinizing the deal. 

Blizzard isn’t the only major publisher to release its games on Steam, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft have released their games on Steam, after skipping the platform for years to focus on their own services. However many publishers do not like having their games on other platforms, since platforms like Steam and Epic Games Store take a large, sometimes up to 30% cut of game sales, something that caught the ire of Ubisoft. 

Overwatch 2 is already available for wishlist purchase on Steam. There is no word what other titles will be released on the platform, we assume Blizzard will take a wait-and-see approach to see how well its games perform before committing to release other titles.