Genre: | Action | ||
Developer: | Blizzard Entertainment | Official Site: | http://eu.battle.net/overwat... |
Publisher: | Blizzard Entertainment | ||
“We realized some time ago that our players would be better served by a global Battle.net that did away with the concept of regions,” says Jeff Allison, Lead Product Manager for Battle.net. “But breaking down these barriers was a significant engineering task. Now that we’ve done it, we look forward to a future where all Battle.net players can communicate and game together no matter where they are.”Oh, and here's a new Battle.net logo, just because.
Battle.net’s global updates also include cross-platform functionality. This has given our game developers the ability to let you play with others between PC and console seamlessly. Overwatch players will be the first to experience these new cross-play capabilities; for more information, check out this blog.
i am leaving Blizzard Entertainment after 19 amazing years.
it was truly the honor of a lifetime to have the opportunity to create worlds and heroes for such a passionate audience. i want to express my deep appreciation to everyone at blizzard who supported our games, our game teams and our players. but i want to say a special thanks to the wonderful game developers that shared in the journey of creation with me.
never accept the world as it appears to be. always dare to see it for what it could be. i hope you do the same.
gg,
jeffrey kaplan
AusGamers: Working with Blizzard and on properties like Warcraft and StarCraft, throwing Overwatch into that mix are there any similarities or through lines you’ve found with these very different universes?
Christie Golden: It may sound a bit ingenuous, but honestly, in both franchises I think you can see the love and care that Blizzard gives all its games. I’ve known this for years, of course, but it’s been great to work here and see that attention to the game’s spirit and details of what makes it beloved in action. Otherwise, the fun of it is that they’re so different in subject matter and approach.
AG: Giving voice and dialogue to Satya (Symmetra) and Zenyatta – what discovery did you need to do for these characters to learn about them and their personalities?
Christie: I spoke with the other members of my department who have worked with the Overwatch team to get a sense of the characters. We also have a few cinematics that deal with the Omnics, and a lovely comic about Symmetra. I played the game as well and listened to all the dialogue uttered by these two characters. Finally, as I always do when trying to get a sense of a character, I tried to “get inside their skin” and think like they do. They were a lot of fun to spend time with.
AG: Finding that humanity and those personal stories – as we find in Stone by Stone – is that the goal and how do you balance that with spectacle and the sort of sci-fi/fantasy people expect?
Christie: My professional career spans three decades. And in that time, a lot of themes have resonated with me that I keep picking at, trying to understand them. The joy is, of course, that I never will, it’s the curiosity that keeps me going. One is, what makes good people go down a dark path? Another is what makes some people get up again and again, while others are defeated? A third is the triumph of the human spirit. Each project has its own themes, of course, and I have always been attentive to how I can bring two very different people or cultures to a point of understanding. I also love the imagination that science fiction and fantasy lets me bring to the project. If you’ve read my work throughout the years, you can see these themes winding through all of them to one degree or another.
It’s time to cosy up with family, friends, and teammates! Winter Wonderland 2020 is now live on PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. Brand new rewards are available this year, so don’t forget to log in from 16 December to 6 January AEDT/NZDT for a holly jolly cosmetic collection!The new content only runs through until january 6th, so make sure you get in now and ignore your family for the online one like so, so, so many of us prefer to do over the Holidays.
NEW BRAWL: 4v4 Freezethaw Elimination
- In addition to Mei’s Snowball Offensive, Yeti Hunt, and Snowball Deathmatch, players will be able to experience the new brawl, 4v4 Freezethaw Elimination!
- This new game mode requires one team to completely freeze the other team in order to win.
- Players will become frozen when they would normally die.
- Teammates can thaw someone by interacting with the frozen player.
WEEKLY CHALLENGES
- Weekly Challenges are back for Winter Wonderland, allowing you to unlock limited-time rewards by winning nine games.
- Rewards include an array of player icons, sprays, and Epic skins!
- Week 1: Elf Junkrat (Epic)
- Week 2: Gingerbread Ana (Epic)
- Week 3: Frosty Roadhog (Epic)
NEW COSMETICS
- Five Legendary Skins:
- Conductor Reinhardt
- Penguin Mei
- Ice Empress Moira
- Toybot Zenyatta
- Lumberjack Torbjorn
- Three Epic Skins
- Player Icons, Sprays
“Our original Lúcioball arena layouts have always felt like a missed opportunity to me,” Michael Heiberg tells me. “For two reasons: the original arena layout had very few opportunities for Lúcio to use one of his signatures moves -- wall-riding. You could wall-ride along the map edges, but you often needed to go out of your way to take advantage of the walls. Secondly, the gameplay was the same for all three locations.”
“I wanted players to care about which map they were playing on,” Michael adds. “When I was coming up with ideas for the Sydney layout, my mind kept wandering to ‘roos, which is what eventually led to most of the floor being covered with jump zones.”
Overwatch League Stats Lab: Players
- Match Report
- Rate Ranks
- Career Totals
- Single-Match Records
- Single-Map Records
- Fleta Deadlifts
Overwatch League Stats Lab: Heroes
- Overwatch League Hero Usage
- Overwatch League Historic Hero Usage
Overwatch League Stats Lab: Matches
- Match Stats
- Streaks
- Quickest Completion Times
- Team Map Stats
Overwatch League Stats Lab: Teamfights
- Teamfight Win Rates
- Teamfight Win Rate Comparisons
- Teamfight Stat Rates
- Team First Death Rates
- Team First Elimination Rates
- Hero First Death Rates
- Hero First Elimination Rates
- Clutch Final Blows
New Feature: Hero Pools
We will be introducing Hero Pools starting in Season 21 of Competitive Play. Much like Map Pools, rather than having all heroes available for play at all times, a weekly changing list of heroes will be available. The list will include the vast majority of the hero roster, with only a few being excluded during any given week. We think this feature will help keep Competitive Play interesting, as team compositions will change more frequently during a season.
It is important to note that Hero Pools is a new feature that may not last past this initial season. Throughout the season, we will be adjusting the types of Hero Pools available. In addition, it is possible we will also adjust the frequency with which they change.
"To the Smash Brothers team, whatever character you want, we love them all. They’re all our babies, you can have any single one of them. We have 31 to choose from."
PLAY TO EARN
Your wins in Quick Play, Competitive Play, or Arcade will earn you a new player icon, new sprays, and a new Legendary skin: Brick Bastion!
- Win three games: two new player icons
- Win six games: two new sprays
- Win nine games: new Legendary skin – Brick Bastion
WATCH TO EARN
Watch participating Twitch streamers to unlock even more Bastion cosmetics through 1 October AEST/NZST!
- Watch two hours: one new spray
- Watch four hours: two new player icons
- Watch six hours: two new player icons and two new sprays
Overwatch-themed Nintendo Switch case (PowerA) listed on Amazon https://t.co/5pceXbSUrZ
— Wario64 (@Wario64) August 26, 2019
"Officially Licensed by Nintendo and blizzard entertainment" pic.twitter.com/yfK0YzmLuN
Peek inside the mind of an eccentric astrophysicist who hopes to unlock the secrets of the universe, unaware he’s been turning into a living weapon: Introducing Sigma.Watch his origin video embedded below.