If you've been patiently waiting for Blizzard's first-person shooter Overwatch, there's some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that you'll be waiting a little bit longer, the good news is what you're waiting for just got a bit better.

　　The closed beta - which shut back in December - will now re-open next month, in February. Granted, that isn't an especially long time to wait, but for people with itchy trigger fingers, it's going to be annoying news.

　　What do you get in return for the longer wait?

　　Blizzard have listened to their fans and have decided to add a brand new game mode to the mix, in addition  to Point Capture and Payload. The new game mode also has a few maps optimized for it, meaning there's a fresh new load of content coming with the next release.

　　No details of the game mode have been released yet.

　　From the announcement on the battle.net forums:

　　Rather than try to rush a beta patch out this month (which would mean the new game mode would have to be put off), we’re going to take a few extra weeks before bringing the Closed Beta back. By doing so, we can make sure we can include the new game mode along with the new maps. This will also allow us to do some additional polish to the game’s progression and reward system. Though all these features will still technically be a work-in-progress during the beta, we’d like them to be at a certain quality bar before releasing them for testing.

　　This was an easy choice for us to make, and hopefully this post can help you understand why we made it. I don’t have an exact date for when the Closed Beta will resume, but right now we’re looking at mid-February (and we don’t intend to slip out of February). We’ll do our best to provide at least one week’s notice before we’re ready to get this beta party started again, so definitely keep an eye on our official channels.

　　We love making this game with you guys. It’s been so much fun and you’ve been incredibly supportive of us. Thank you all so much for your patience and we hope to see you in-game soon!