Everything in Overwatch 2 Season 4: Possible release date, new Hero, Battle Pass & map changes

genji holding weapons in overwatch 2Blizzard Entertainment

Overwatch 2 Season 4 is the next chapter in Blizzard’s Hero shooter and there will be some notable additions in this season including a new Hero and map changes.

The nature of seasonal Overwatch 2 updates has officially changed as the age-old model of adding a new Hero with every season is gone, as proven by Season 3, and Blizzard will instead be focusing on a certain aspect with each new Overwatch 2 season.

Antarctic Peninsula was the focal point of Season 3, and Blizzard have already given players an idea of the type of content they can expect to see when it comes to Overwatch 2 Season 4.

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So let’s waste no time and get straight into it.

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Overwatch 2 Season 4: Release date

Overwatch 2 Season 4 will commence on April 12, 2023. Each season of Overwatch 2 has lasted 9 weeks, or 64 days to be more precise, and the in-game countdown timer lines up with this information.

Obviously, there are no certainties when it comes to live season content and things could change, so we’ll keep you informed.

Overwatch 2 Season 4: New Hero

With the new push towards alternating a new map and a new Hero, Overwatch 2 Season 4 will be welcoming a new character into the fold.

As of yet, there is no word on who will be joining Season 1’s Ramattra as a new seasonal face to join the roster. However, Overwatch 2 Game Director Aaron Keller did confirm with NME back in January 2023 that the next two Heroes will be Support additions.

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“We’re really focusing on Supports right now – the next two Heroes we’re going to be released are Support Heroes,” said Keller who acknowledged that there are much fewer Support characters compared to other roles.

overhead view of antarctic peninsula in overwatch 2Blizzard Entertainment

Overwatch 2 Season 4: Map changes

A new Hero means no new maps in Overwatch 2 Season 4, on the other hand, there will be a significant change arriving in the season as the game is doing away with map pools moving forward.

Keller had this to say in a February 3, 2023, Blizzard blog post: “Map Pools are going away starting in Season 4. We aimed to provide a bit of freshness each season and concentrate the number of maps that people were playing, however player sentiment around map pools was pretty low, the map roster doesn’t have enough maps where we truly need them, and the impact they had on seasonal identity was fairly low.”

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The Director has also confirmed that the team is looking into possible changes to existing maps to solve some common issues during games.

“Do you ever spawn on defense in Gibraltar right before the first checkpoint is reached and wonder whether you’ll get back to your team alive without getting caught outside of spawn? This problem has gone on too long. We’ve looked into level design changes to fix this problem in several maps, and will probably use that in a few places, but those have the possibility of opening new flanking routes for the offense that we’d prefer to avoid. So, we’re talking about solutions that don’t necessitate map changes,” Keller said.

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He did say that it was unlikely these changes would arrive with Season 4 — but never say never.

gameplay fight in overwatch 2Blizzard Entertainment

Overwatch 2 Season 4: Buffs, nerfs & Competitive changes

Every seasonal Overwatch 2 update comes equipped with various buffs and nerfs that tinker with the state of the game’s Heroes. Overwatch 2 Season 4 is likely to do the same thing, and the devs normally give hints about balancing the closer we get to the season’s launch.

One area we expect to receive a substantial overhaul is the game’s Competitive mode, which has been a constant mixed bag of emotions since Overwatch 2 was released.

The devs have confirmed that skill rating Tier updates will be altered to reflect your ranking based on more recent performances.

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Another area of concern that has plagued Overwatch 2 is the apparent lack of punishment for players leaving Ranked games early. A Systems Designer at Blizzard confirmed that they’re looking into this: “We’re considering making ranked penalties partially carry over from season to season and we’d like to make sure that leaving games is never optimal for progressing challenges regardless of whether you’re in ranked or unranked.”

Overwatch 2 Season 4: New Battle Pass

Whereas some areas are set to be changed in Overwatch 2 Season 4, one thing that is expected to remain the same is the idea of the Battle Pass.

A new seasonal pass is expected to debut alongside the new season, and while there’s not too much information on it just yet, it’s fair to say that a slew of new cosmetics such as skins and emotes will be available to earn from it.

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That wraps up everything we know about Overwatch 2 Season 4, and if you want even more Overwatch 2 guides and content, we have plenty of other stuff for you to check out below:

All Overwatch 2 characters | Sojourn guide | Junker Queen guide | Kiriko guide | Overwatch 2 server status | How to download Overwatch 2 | How many people play Overwatch 2? | Overwatch 2 picks rates: Most popular characters in OW2 | How to get Golden Guns in Overwatch 2 | Overwatch 2: Best graphics settings to boost FPS | How to emote in Overwatch 2 | Best Overwatch 2 DPS tier list: Most popular characters for current meta