Category: Overwatch News

Blizzard has announced that the Summer Games will be making a return to Overwatch starting August 9th. “You’ll get a kick out of this! Team up with your friends for the Summer Games on August 9th!” the Overwatch Twitter reads. You may remember that the first summer games was themed around the Olympics. Last year, the event took on a more generalized “summer” theme with bathing suits and even Soldier 76’s grillmaster skin (complete with socks & sandals!).

VG247 has an exclusive look at some big changes coming for one of Overwatch’s most defensive characters: Torbjorn. The goal is to make him feel like a viable choice from the get go, not just after setting up his turret, upgrading it and armoring up his companions. With that in mind, he’s getting a big overhaul.

If you’re one of the ten people in the world who have not ever tried Overwatch or haven’t yet purchased it, we have good news: There’s another free weekend coming that will run from July 26th to July 30th. All heroes, including the recently announced “Hammond The Wrecking Ball, will be available as well as 18 maps and “a variety of game modes”. Players can level and earn loot boxes along the way and all progress will be saved should a player end up buying Overwatch.

The Overwatch forum has a new post that lays out some forthcoming changes to the Healer / Support characters coming in a future update. Brigitte is getting a hefty reduction in the effectiveness of her Shield Bash and Mercy is getting her healing rate dropped. Meanwhile Moira, Lucio and Ana will be seeing some across-the-board boosts to healing. Zenyatta gets a hearty handshake, a pat on the back and nothing new added / removed from his kit.

The Overwatch Twitter has a warning for all players: “Beware of small mammals. Wrecking Ball rolls into the fight 07.24.18”. That means, for those who do not read well between the lines, that Hammond, a.k.a. “Wrecking Ball”, is coming to Overwatch on July 24th.

Jeff Kaplan has taken to the forum with some fascinating statistics regarding the drastic reduction of incidences of abusive chat in Overwatch matches. Competitive Matches that have had reported incidents of abusive chat is down over 26% in the Americas and over 16% in Korea. The number of players being reported as “abusive” is down similarly: Almost 29% in the Americas and nearly 22% in Korea.

Blizzard and Disney are partnering up to bring the Overwatch League to Disney’s stable of channels including ESPN, ESPN 2, ABC and Disney XD, all considered “traditional TV channels”. This comes after the inaugural season debuted exclusively on streaming channels such as Twitch.

The Overwatch Twitter has just announced that sales of the pink Mercy skin on behalf of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation has raised $12.7 MILLION. 100% of the proceeds from the sales of the skin will go directly to the charitable foundation. All we can say is that we are blown away. As Blizzard wrote, “Thank you, heroes!”

It seems that Overwatch’s next hero isn’t going to be a gorilla as many had opined. Instead, the Overwatch Twitter has revealed what seems to be a rolling mech-using…hamster. Yes…you read it right.

There has always been a reporting system for bad behavior and it will remain in place in Overwatch. However, Blizzard is also introducing a new Endorsement System that will allow players “to acknowledge other players for having a positive impact on your gaming experience”. You’ll be able to acknowledge your fellow teammates who are as invested in having fun as you are.