Overwatch Has Lots of Content Incoming Soon
To celebrate the first birthday of Overwatch, Blizzard Entertainment will host an Anniversary event coming next week and today more details about the event have been revealed, including new skins, maps and items! Along with these additions, Blizzard has also announced that they will be releasing a second season of animated short films.
The Anniversary event incoming next week, from May 23rd to June 12th, will add 3 new arena maps, a few new skins, voice lines, dance emotes and a bunch of cosmetic items! Blizzard has teased new skins for Bastion, Pharah, Solder 76 and Zarya, meaning that players can look forward to seeing at least 4 new skins, and likely even more. Overwatch will also be getting three new maps, all of which appear to be based at existing locations, can be seen in the tweet below.
Here's a sneak peek at three new ARENA MAPS coming soon to our Overwatch Anniversary celebration.
The party begins May 23! ???????? pic.twitter.com/umXbr0bq7k
— Overwatch (@OverwatchEU) May 18, 2017
The new dance emotes are coming for Sombra, Lucio, Symmetra and Zenyatta, and new voice lines are coming for Winston, Soldier: 76, Symmetra, Reinhardt, Roadhog, McCree and Lúcio. Hopefully with all of the new stuff incoming, each of the characters will get something new!
During a press event in New York City, Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan said that more animated shorts are in the works! He stated that the team has the most fun making them, “We really love working with our animation group and digging out the stories not tied to any constraints of gameplay — we can tell any stories we want.” He then mentioned that they plan to make more, “We’re hard at work on more of those.”
The animated short film is a series that serves to delve deeper into the Overwatch hero roster, allowing fans a closer look into the characters. These previous shorts have included a look at Winston, Widowmaker, Tracer, Hanzo, Genji, Soldier 76, Bastion and a small one for Sombra. There are plenty of characters still left to feature and although the animated shorts “take a long time” to make, Kaplan has confirmed that they are “making good progress.”
While there is no timeline for the second season yet, Kaplan has said that characters like Pharah are destined for more spotlight in the coming months. Who knows, maybe that’s a hint about what to expect from the next animated short!