Blizzard Says No New 'Overwatch' Map at BlizzCon

Blizzard says it won’t be revealing a new Overwatch map at BlizzCon 2018, but that doesn’t [...]

By Tanner Dedmon

Blizzard says it won't be revealing a new Overwatch map at BlizzCon 2018, but that doesn't mean the convention will go without big announcements.

In the latest developer update for Overwatch, Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan tempered expectations for a new map by saying that there wouldn't be a new battleground announcement during BlizzCon. He said that he knows people look to what the developer has done in the past to guess what it will do in the future – two of the recent BlizzCon events consisted harbored new map announcements, for example – but he definitively said that there won't be a new map revealed during Blizzard's big event next month.

"I've read a lot of this on social media you sort of predict what's going to be announced or not announced at BlizzCon," Kaplan said. "I want to be explicitly clear that we're not announcing a new map this year at BlizzCon."

Referencing the two maps that were announced at past events, those being Oasis and Blizzard World, Kaplan said that the Overwatch team felt the map announcements were "lost in the shuffle" during BlizzCon and when they were eventually released. He said that they felt maps were special announcements, but they didn't feel that way when the maps were revealed during BlizzCon.

Reassuring those who were hoping for new maps, Kaplan stressed that Blizzard is working on "new map content." That doesn't explicitly mean that a new map is in the works considering the way he phrased it, but he confirmed that there is something map-related that's being worked on.

But not having plans for a map at BlizzCon doesn't mean that Blizzard has no plans at all with Kaplan teasing that Blizzard has some "amazing" announcements to share during the event.

"That does not mean that there won't be amazing announcements at BlizzCon," he said. "We think the content we have for BlizzCon is going to be awesome, and I wish I could share it with you all right now."

Kaplan's teaser alongside his statements about the map announcements being lost in the BlizzCon mix make it difficult to decipher what Blizzard might have planned for BlizzCon. Blizzard could be planning to announce smaller features that could better fit in with the event instead of being overshadowed by it, or it could be planning on something much bigger that would stand out among other announcements. BlizzCon doesn't start until November 2nd though, so what Blizzard has planned for Overwatch won't be heard or seen until then.

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