The next big thing from Blizzard is coming very soon. The developer announced today that its colorful multiplayer shooter Overwatch will be launching on May 24th on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. It was previously pegged for a spring 2016 release. A beta for the game will be available earlier that month; those who pre-order the game will get access to the beta on May 3rd, while an open version will launch between May 5th and 9th.

Overwatch was originally announced in November 2014, and it's a big deal for Blizzard. The company is primarily known for three franchises — Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo — and Overwatch represents its first new property in nearly two decades. The team-based shooter started life as the long-in-development Project Titan, originally billed as the successor to World of Warcraft, before being reworked into the game that launches later this year. It's one of several experimental projects from Blizzard, which has seen great success with Hearthstone, a free-to-play collectible card game set in the Warcraft universe, along with the multiplayer strategy game Heroes of the Storm.

The new release date puts Overwatch in direct competition with a very similar game, Gearbox Software's wild multiplayer shooter Battleborn, which will be available on the same platforms on May 3rd.