Overwatch Beta Introduces Voice Chat to Blizzard's Battle.net

The beta for Blizzard's team-based shooter, Overwatch, will begin in North America and Europe on October 27 and will introduce voice communication built into Battle.net, the platform that StarCraft 2, Heroes of the Storm, and Hearthstone also run on. 

An upcoming Battle.net update "will lay the foundation for us to test voice chat functionality within the Overwatch beta," the studio said in a post on the game's official website. Since the majority of Blizzard's game feature popular multiplayer components, the natural assumption is this functionality will spread to other games. However, the company has said "voice chat still in its early development and testing stages," and as a result it is "too early to say which Blizzard games will be supported and when." Overwatch was first announced in November last year, debuting with a Pixar-esque introduction video. The game is Blizzard's first new franchise in 17 years. Although there are obvious similarities between it and Valve's Team Fortress 2, the shooter also contains design elements common to MOBA titles such as Dota 2 and League of Legends.