Following multiple rumours, Overwatch 2 has been officially announced. Director Jeff Kaplan came on stage to tell us how excited he was to not have to announce anything following all of this week’s leaks. The new animated cinematic is the first to advance the universe’s timeline since the original game launched.
We open on a mostly empty transport vehicle – except for Winston, Tracer, and Mei, who are looking over Overwatch memorabilia and worrying whether they have enough people on their side. An army of omnics is attacking Paris, and our three heroes are here to help. Then there’s a giant mech, which changes the balance of power just a bit.
Until Genji shows up, at least, and the rest of the Overwatch crew. Along with Echo. A bit of teamwork naturally saves the day – and confirms both Overwatch 2 and Echo.
Overwatch 2 was previously rumoured, and now we know the rumours to be true. The first game in the series continues to be one of Blizzard’s most popular titles, and it was a critical success when it launched in 2016 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. It later came to Nintendo Switch.
Blizzard has had a rough time of it this past year, going from the poorly-received announcement of Diablo Immortal at last year’s BlizzCon to the announcement the company was laying off more than 200 employees as part of a cost-cutting effort by parent Activision-Blizzard.
A string of high-profile departures followed in the wake of that news, and lately the company has been weathering a barrage of criticism over its handling of Hearthstone pro Ng ‘Blitzchung’ Wai Chung, who spoke out in defence of anti-government protests in Hong Kong at a recent tournament.