[Update #2]: Overwatch 2 will be showing off the Sombra and Bastion reworks on September 25, 2021.

[Update]: Overwatch will soon be adding cross-play between PC and consoles.

Throughout all of Overwatch Blizzard has struggled with not only balancing tanks, but also incentivizing players to actually pick them. Even after multiple reworks and changes to the very core of the game itself, tanks still remain highly unpopular. And to make matters worse, you can't have matches without two tanks, which means that the queue times are constantly increasing despite Blizzard's best efforts.

With all of that in mind, it should come as little surprise to hear that Blizzard has opted to go with the nuclear option for Overwatch 2. As announced in the recent developer steam, Overwatch 2 will be dropping one tank per team and making the matches a 5v5 affair.

In order to compensate for this all of the tanks will be getting reworked in order to not only be more powerful, but more self-sufficient as well. I can't give you the specifics as Blizzard is still keeping things under wraps, but so far it looks like Reinhardt is getting two firestrikes and a better charge. Whether this will be enough to compensate for the inherent synergy between two tanks, I have absolutely no idea, but I can't help but feel cautiously optimistic about the change.

While yes, it does suck to lose such iconic combos like Reinhardt & Zarya or Winston & D.Va, the current tank system is far too rigid and far too reliant on those combos in order to work. So if Blizzard can make them independently powerful and unique enough that you'd want to swap around between them mid-match like you would with DPS or support heroes, tanks might just become a lot more exciting to the general playerbase. And even if the whole thing fails miserably and tanks remain as unpopular as ever, we least might end up with shorter queue times!

Whatever the case may be, I'll make sure to let you know once Blizzard releases more details. Until then, you should definitely check out the recent developer stream as it's quite an interesting one. Enjoy!