Overwatch Announced By Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment today announced Overwatch, a first-person shooter featuring a varied cast of heroes and set in an all-new Blizzard game universe.

The action of Overwatch takes place in a technologically-advanced, stylized future earth. In a time of global crisis, an international task force of soldiers, scientists, adventurers, and oddities known as Overwatch had come together to restore peace to a war-torn world. After many years, the group's influence waned, and it was eventually disbanded. Overwatch might be gone now . . . but the world still needs heroes.

"Overwatch is our take on a vibrant, near-future universe with amped-up characters and action-packed team-based gameplay," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. "With every new Blizzard game, we look at our favorite aspects of a genre and put our own spin on things. Our goal with Overwatch is to create an awesome first-person shooter experience that's more accessible to a much wider audience while delivering the action and depth that shooter fans love."

Harnessing the power of their hero of choice, players will join forces in teams of six and battle each other across a range of futuristic global locations, from the hologram-lit streets of London to a bazaar in the shadows of a high-tech Egyptian pyramid. Battlefields are built to highlight each character's unique abilities, and fights can shift from streets to rooftops to open skies.

The heroes of Overwatch each bring their own distinct weapons and abilities to bear. Blizzard provided a sampling of the numerous heroes that will ultimately fill Overwatch's rosters:

• Tracer, a former British test pilot who shrugs at danger, can execute impossible acrobatic assaults thanks to her ability to teleport, drop energy bombs, and even reverse time.
• Reinhardt, a hulking German soldier in battle armor, can charge great distances and pin his enemies to a wall or slam the ground with his rocket hammer to knock them off their feet.
• Hanzo, a bow-wielding Japanese mercenary, has the ability to scale walls with his bare hands, fire off a tracking device that illuminates nearby enemies for his team, and unleash a huge spirit dragon that does grievous damage to all enemies in its path.
• Symmetra, an Indian architech, manipulates light and energy to shield her allies and damage her enemies—and she can turn the tide of any battle by building a device that instantly transports her teammates to the front lines.

The developer said that while each hero represents a formidable force on their own, players can amplify their potential by assembling into a well-balanced team and creatively combining powers. 

At BlizzCon this weekend, Overwatch is fully playable and running on 600 PCs, and the 25,000 attendees there are the first in the world to play it. Gamers at the show are able to select from a current roster of 12 playable heroes and go 6v6 against each other, capturing or defending points and attacking or delivering payloads across three wildly different maps. New heroes and maps will continually be added to the game as development progresses, and beta testing will begin in 2015.

Learn more about Overwatch, including all of the heroes and maps revealed at BlizzCon, and sign up to participate in the upcoming beta test at the official website, www.playoverwatch.com. Further details about the game will be announced there in the months ahead.