Overwatch

The Big Stories To Follow For Overwatch League Season Two

Tomorrow, after several cold, OWL-less months, Overwatch League season two kicks off. The first season had its ups and downs, fittingly ending on a simultaneously high and low note with a blockbuster grand finals match in New York that ended up being a one-sided blowout. Since then, a lot has changed, leading to questions about…

Overwatch League’s Once-Dominant Team Opens Up About Their Season One Failings

New York Excelsior’s first season in the Overwatch League ended with more questions than answers, most of them boiling down to some variation on “What happened?” The answer to that question depends on who you talk to. Two members chalk it up to the choppy waters of a shifting meta, but to hear another tell…

I Tried These Weird New Cereals So You Don’t Have To

If you’ve walked down the breakfast aisle of your local supermarket in the last few months you’re likely aware that some sort of bizarre cereal apocalypse is upon us. Classic cereals of the past are currently being forced to bump elbows with some of the strangest new additions to the junk food breakfast market in…

OK, We Can Shut Down Overwatch Toys Now

Wrap it up. Nearly three years after it was first released, and long after I stopped playing the actual game, my one and only Overwatch request has come true, and so there is no need for any further merchandise. There’s a Figma based on Mercy coming next year. Selling for $90 (!) from Blizzard’s online…

Apex Legends Has A Cute Overwatch Tribute

Like Overwatch, Apex Legends, the new hero-based battle royale game from the creators of Titanfall, contains a playable character who’s a bipedal robot with a heart of gold. He’s also got a bird friend, although I’m not sure how friendly they are. Reddit user Arzamar discovered that Apex Legends has an in-game banner pose that’s…

Player Hacks Overwatch To Play In-Game Piano With A Real Piano

You’ve probably heard by now that Overwatch’s new Paris map has a fully playable piano. You might have even heard somebody play “All Star” by Smash Mouth on it, because that song—a shimmering monument to the idea of unearned confidence—will outlive us all. Now, one player has taken things a step further. Overwatch fan Zbnone…

What I Learned From Watching A Great Deal Of Overwatch Porn

Last week, I stumbled upon Overwatch porn. I wasn’t looking for it—I know as much about Overwatch as I do about sports, cars, or how to talk to my parents about what I write—but it’s not hard to stumble across porn when browsing the gigantic nudity repository that is the internet. NSFW Warning: This post…

Overwatch‘s New Paris Map Has A Piano And Everyone Is Playing It

Yesterday, Blizzard surprise-dropped a new Paris map onto Overwatch’s PC public test server, and players were thrilled to discover that their guns, hammers, and hamster balls can do more than just claim lives in this ravaged city of romance. They can also play piano. Players have been using the new piano to fire bullets into…

Overwatch League season two’s “all-access pass” will include first-person camera options for each player. The $14.99 package also includes other viewing options and bonuses, but fans have been requesting a first-person camera since the start of season one last year. Now they’ve got it. Well, if they’re willing to pay.

Overwatch Gets New Paris Map

Surprise surprise, Overwatch—which players have taken to declaring a veritable dust bowl of new content in the wake of yet another seasonal event retread—is getting a new map. This one’s set in Paris, the city of romance (and now, romance’s close friend, Death) just in time for Valentine’s Day. Blizzard revealed the map without a…

Overwatch Is No Longer My Third Place

Nobody ever asks why anyone stopped playing Halo 2. No response would merit it. The game came out in 2004, and three years later, there was Halo 3. At some point, it got old. Another game came along. Friends moved on. It was just a thing you did, and then you went and did something…

Overwatch‘s New Skins Are Based On Historic Figures

It’s that time again: Another year has passed, sapping us all of precious vitality and slowly pulverizing our faculties until we’re unidentifiable powder in the wind. But in return, we get new Overwatch skins as part of the game’s annual Lunar New Year event. Really, it’s a pretty even trade. Overwatch’s “Year of the Pig”…

Jeff Kaplan Knows Some People Will Always Hate Overwatch‘s Meta

Metas of competitive games age less like fine wine and more like cottage cheese in a dumpster. When a meta’s overstayed its welcome, you know—because players make stink after stink after stink about it. That’s where Overwatch, with its unpopular “GOATS” meta, is at right now. Game director Jeff Kaplan, though, isn’t sure it’s possible…

As a tie in with yesterday’s “Bastet” comic, Overwatch is kicking off an in-game event that’ll allow players to earn themed rewards. Much like D.Va’s Nano Challenge from last year, Ana’s Bastet Challenge will grant players a new skin for winning nine games, as well as other rewards on the way to that milestone. You…

Overwatch Fan’s Letter To Jeff Kaplan About Black Women Gets Heartfelt Response

In March 2017, an Overwatch fan wrote to Jeff Kaplan about the lack of black female characters in the game. To her surprise, he wrote back a few months later, saying he hoped that one day diversity would be the norm and promising that there were multiple black characters in the works. “The most important…

Red Carpet Superstar

JungAh Lee is a senior concept artist at Blizzard, and has worked on stuff like Overwatch You can see more of Lee’s work at her ArtStation page

The Internet Reacts To Soldier 76 And His Ex-Boyfriend

Tracer is no longer the only canonically LGBTQ hero in Overwatch. Today, Blizzard released a new short story focusing on steely sniper grandma Ana and grumpy military dad Soldier 76. The latter, it turns out, used to be involved with a man named Vincent. In the short story, titled “Bastet,” Ana encounters Soldier for the…

Overwatch Team Says Player Questioned About Identity Was Impostor After All [UPDATE]

Earlier this week, a player going by the handle Ellie—no first or last name provided—departed Overwatch Contenders team Second Wind after facing harassment and doxxing threats surrounding their identity. This evening, rumors circulated that they may have been an impostor after all. Now their former team has confirmed as much. In a TwitLonger post, Second…

Overwatch Pro Quits After Harassment Over Whether She Was Really Playing [UPDATE]

Update – 10:30 PM, 1/04/19: Since the publication of this story, new signs have emerged that Ellie may not have been who people thought she was. Earlier today, Aspen, an Overwatch streamer for esports organization Cloud 9, claimed that top-500 player Punisher—her friend—was Ellie after all. “Ellie is not Ellie,” she said during a stream.…

With Activision’s Influence Growing, Blizzard Is Cutting Costs

Blizzard has spent the year taking big measures to cut costs as it prepares for a lean 2019. Those measures, as conveyed by people who work or have worked for the iconic studio, include employee buyouts in which workers are offered money to leave, a broadening of the finance department, and the limitation of budgets…