Overwatch's First Anniversary
The popular first-person shooter brought to the world almost one year ago has already passed the milestone of 30 million accounts in its playerbase. Overwatch is renowned for its energetic gameplay, engaging characters, and unique design. Additionally, the story is rich and dense, with all elements thought out carefully and in detail. As the game approaches its one year anniversary, tidbits of data have leaked that suggest a huge content drop for the game including cosmetics, characters, and more.
Overwatch will celebrate its first anniversary on May 24th
Activision Blizzard has been extremely successful with its Overwatch series, netting over a billion dollars in profits thanks to its popularity as well as the “loot box” cosmetic upgrade system. Players earn cosmetics regularly throughout the game in a randomly determined pattern, but fans can purchase chances to earn more loot for about a dollar per box.
Dedicated players performed a data mining operation and discovered that even more cosmetics and changes would be available for this year’s anniversary event. Numerous sources have backed the claims, from online message boards to Youtube gamers. The event data appeared in the Public Testing Environment, or PTE, under the filename “Event_6”. News sources caution to take the information with a grain of salt, as some of it is not officially confirmed and data can change before the anniversary.
Skins, icons, maps and more will potentially be included in the next update
Possibly the most popular cosmetic item in the game is skins, which gives players a visual customization of each character. Common skins include simple color palette changes, while others are time limited special variations that are unique to each character. Five to eight cosmetics will be available for each character, including brand-new skins as well as other items.
Players also noted that Blizzard promised to add three new maps to the game this year. We have already received Eichenwalde, a German castle setting, and some suspect the timing is right for the next map to be included. The location could be anywhere from a global Overwatch base to another locale in India, Brazil, Australia, or elsewhere. None of those countries have yet received an official map, but several characters live in those places.
Doomfist, the 25th hero, may or may not appear in the event
From the game’s very first cinematic trailer, which featured a fight over the legendary Doomfist gauntlet, players have speculated if this character might appear playable in the game. Several bits of data hint that a new hero in-universe is ready to take on the Doomfist persona, and some fans have noticed actor Terry Crews has been spending a lot of time at Overwatch’s development studios over the last few months.
Jeff Kaplan, the director of the game, officially stated that they were “very far along with Hero 25” in April. Rumors have been swirling that Doomfist will be a powerful offensive force that can counter some of the Tank characters in the game. Regardless, it is not officially confirmed if he will appear during or before the anniversary event. There was no mention of Doomfist in the leaked datamined files, but that doesn’t exclude the possibility that he could be released earlier than May 24th.
I for one am very excited about the upcoming event. All of the characters will receive some kind of cosmetic or voice line, so everyone can enjoy the anniversary update. Are you excited about the pending release of the long-awaited Doomfist? Let me know in the comments below!
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