Blizzard’s Free-to-Play Overwatch Weekend Scheduled For August 23-27

Overwatch is one of the most popular games in its genre by far, and there are hardly gamer who has not tried the game since its launch. However, in case you’re one of them, this is your chance to give it a spin for free.

Blizzard has announced that it will stage a four-day, free Overwatch weekend beginning Thursday, Aug. 23. As part of the program, all 28 characters and all 18 maps will be available for free on all three platforms – PC, PS4 and Xbox One. The free play begins at 11:30pm IST on Thursday, Aug. 23 and continues until 12:30pm IST on Monday, August 28.

The company also says that anybody who chooses to take the test-drive will be able to keep any progress if they do happen to shell out the money for the Overwatch Legendary Edition as long as they use the same account and platform.

It is worth noting here that Overwatch staged a free weekend late last month, but that was only for PC, and was meant to celebrate the first ever Overwatch League Grand Finals. This time around, though, many more players will get access to the free gameplay, thanks to the availability on all three platforms. Players on Xbox One and PS4 will, however, need Xbox Live Gold and PlayStation Plus subscriptions, respectively.

PC gamers will be able to download Overwatch for free through the Blizzard’s Battle.net platform, while PS4 players will find it in the PlayStation Store under ‘Overwatch Free Weekend’. Xbox One users, meanwhile, will find their free edition under ‘Overwatch: Origins Edition’ in the Xbox One Store. The listing will come with a ‘Free Trial’ button during the promo.

In case you’re wondering, the free players will have access to the latest hero, the hamster named Wrecking Ball, who was added to the game just last month “as the seventh tank hero in the Overwatch lineup”. You can get more details about the free weekend at this link on the official Overwatch site.