A leak has confirmed rumors that Overwatch will be coming to the Nintendo Switch, revealing the release date that was set to be announced at the September 4 Nintendo Direct stream.
Blizzard’s popular hero shooter has been available on PS4, Xbox One and PC since 2016, and with Nintendo acquiring more and more established games for their Switch, Overwatch was an obvious choice.
The first hints that Overwatch was coming to Switch came from retail leaks, but Kotaku has reported that they have confirmed these rumors as accurate on September 4 – ahead of the Nintendo direct conference.
A thread on ResetEra has shared a retail listing for upcoming Nintendo Switch releases, with their launch dates alongside, and Kotaku say they have confirmed these dates with two sources.
When is Overwatch coming to Nintendo Switch?
The leak reveals that Overwatch will release for Nintendo Switch on October 18, 2019. This is only a few days after the Switch release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, another highly anticipated port.
The official announcement of Overwatch on the Switch is expected to be in the Nintendo Direct livestream at 3PM PST / 6PM EST / 11PM BST.
Kotaku also expects there to be more news on this and other plans for the future of Overwatch at BlizzCon in November, although by then the Switch release will already be available if these leaked dates are accurate.
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If you’re a Nintendo player who’s new to Overwatch, it’s an exciting prospect as there is currently a very limited selection of hero shooters available on the console.
The only alternative is Paladins, but Overwatch provides a very different type of gameplay, with a slightly more competitive edge. Professional Overwatch, played on the PC, is one of the biggest esports in the world, and getting a taste of that on the Switch device should be a treat.
It remains to be seen how well optimized it will be though, considering The Witcher 3, for example, is expected to take some major performance hits, expected on the smaller device. Overwatch is one of the best-optimized games on PC’s though, so hopefully, Blizzard can work their magic again for Switch.
This wouldn’t be the first Blizzard title ported to Nintendo’s newest console. In 2018, the company released Diablo III: Eternal Collection with some special exclusive items such as a Legend of Ganondorf cosmetic armor set.
It will be fun to see if Blizzard includes exclusive skins for Overwatch characters based on Nintendo IPs when the game launches.