Blizzard will bring its PC games to the Steam platform, starting with Overwatch 2, which will be available on August 10. This will be a major strategic change, which most likely involves the purchase of the Activision group by Microsoft.

Blizzard explains that the video game market has changed tremendously since the Battle.net platform was first launched in 1996. Steam has become a great reference in digital distribution platforms and together with other alternatives (GOG, Humble Bundle, Green Man Gaming, GamersGate…) are the preferred place to buy titles and play on PCs.

“Our goal at Blizzard is to listen to players and strive to exceed their expectations in everything we do.”assured Blizzard Entertainment President Mike Ybarra in an official announcement. “While Battle.net remains a priority for us now and in the future, we’ve listened to players who want to use it in our selection of games… We’re excited to work with Valve to make that happen.”clarifies.

Blizzard games on Steam will still require a Battle.net account to log into the game, but you won’t need to download the Battle.net client to play. The Steam version will also be fully cross-platform at launch thanks to integration with Battle.net and will include built-in support for achievements and a friends list.

Valve President Welcomes Blizzard Games: “Gamers will have another platform to play their favorite game that takes advantage of Steam’s capabilities, and developers will benefit from the talented team at Blizzard helping us develop our supported features and functionality for ‘Overwatch 2.’.

And other games like Diablo IV?

To say that Overwatch 2 isn’t Blizzard’s best game, not even its most popular, has been losing users since launch. However, its arrival on Steam should be a boost for the game Whether more important titles like the successful Diablo IV will come to Steam remains to be seen.

The Overwatch 2 Steam page is now available for players to watch and wishlist. It will launch on August 10 at the time of the release of ‘Invasion’, a major game update that will include the first set of PvE story missions, a new core PvP game mode with two new maps, and a new hero.

It’s no secret that the arrival of Blizzard games on Steam is tied to Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard Kind. When those from Redmond pay 69,000 million dollars for their acquisition, they will send the games not only to the Valve platform, but also to the Xbox itself. Battle.net was an exclusive platform for Blizzard games, but that will end soon.