For those who wish to buy a retail copy of Overwatch, the game will available from Best Buy and GameStop a day early, May 23 instead of 24. That said, there will be no change as to when servers will be going online. Last week, Best Buy began notifying players that Overwatch pre-orders would be available for pick up May 23, a day early.
Gamespot.com contacted Best Buy, and subsequently Blizzard, and Blizzard confirmed that the game would be available from retail a day early, but only to "ensure players are ready for launch."
"We would like for all of the players to be ready to dive straight into the action when the servers go live, so retailers are going to begin selling the game when their stores open on May 23rd."
Players who pre-order digitally will be able to pre-load the game (and its patches) before servers go live, allowing instant access when servers open up. Players who prefer not to go digital, myself included, would be forced to download and install the game and its patches before they get to play, effectively putting a barrier between gamer and game. With this, that barrier is removed. Physical players will also be able to download the game's patches ahead of time and be ready to dive in ASAP.
Though it sounded a bit off at first, this is a great thing. This has been another argument between digital VS physical for a while now and, at least in this case, the argument is eliminated. This way, everyone has the chance to get in as soon as possible. This'll go a long way to helping players who prefer physical discs to digital downloads.
