Blizzard Entertainment has announced that the closed beta for Overwatch will be coming to an end on April 25 in preparation for the open beta, which starts May 4  at 4:00pm PDT (May 2 at 4:00pm PDT if you pre-ordered), as well as full release, which arrives on May 24.

“I just wanted to express a sincere thanks on behalf of the development team and everyone here at Blizzard for how much you all have contributed to making Overwatch great and really getting it ready for the launch,” game director Jeff Kaplan said in a recent developer update video.

“As you guys know, it’s been a very long journey. There’s been a lot of awesome discussion along the way – ways to make the game better. I hope that you’ve really seen and felt how much we’ve integrated your feedback into the game.”

Aside from a brief hiatus, the Overwatch closed beta has been running since the end of October, and during that time, Blizzard has been able to gather both valuable feedback from players as well as measurable statistical data that have helped shape the development of the game. Kaplan explained that even the players who never submitted a bug report or posted suggestions on the forum were still helpful in deciding what changes needed to be made to the game.

“I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but the sheer amount that you guys played allowed us to gather so much data and statistics,” Kaplan said. “Not only were we looking at our infrastructure and how the game was running, but we were really studying how people played and getting information that went beyond anecdotal from people.”

“So when we heard this certain hero might be overpowered or underpowerd or this particular map had issues, you guys were actually proving out statistically whether that was true or not, and that was super, super helpful.”

Kaplan said that there will be fewer major changes made to the game for the remainder of the beta as the development team works on ensuring that Overwatch will be completely stable for launch, but he assures fans that Blizzard will make regular updates post-launch and will eventually be introducing new heroes and maps.

You can watch the full Overwatch developer update below:

Image credit: Overwatch courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.