The Big Blue did their mini-Blizzcon thing again by bringing a stage show back to Gamescom. As expected, we saw slightly less dramatic reveals than in 2015 when they dropped a whole new WoW expansion, but we got a very sweet Mei animated short and a stirring trailer for WoW’s Argus patch.
Here’s what we’ve seen already of Overwatch patch 1.15, which should hit PTR next week.
Overwatch – Mei cinematic short, ‘Rise and Shine’
Introduced by Overwatch production director Chacko Sonny and Blizzard animation project director Ben Dai, this came as a bit of a surprise as a Zarya short had been teased at previously. It was a nice surprise, though, striking like an ice needle to the feels. Mei’s backstory is an underdog tale of pluck and resourcefulness, in which the Chinese scientist makes like Matt Damon in the Martian, but colder. Check it out above.
Sonny also mentioned that the coming Junkertown map will contain further hints to the backstory of Australia’s hottest new comedy double-act, Roadhog and Junkrat. We look forward to digging them up when it lands on the PTR, as it surely will in patch 1.15.
World of Warcraft – patch 7.3
The next WoW patch was the meat of the presentation, but even this was only morsel-sized since it’s been on PTR for so long. The highlight was a new patch trailer, which you can watch above. For a full rundown of patch 7.3, check out our guide.
Hearthstone – Hearth and Home short
In an unexpected twist for Blizzard’s presentation, it looks like Hearthstone is going full Disney; we’re soon to get a series of comics and shorts telling the story of its tavern, and to kick it all off, we got this lovely inaugural musical number; take a look. In other news, Blizzard revealed that the final mission of the Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion is coming out on Friday.
Heroes of the Storm – Kel’Thuzad spotlight
Not too much to get excited about here – the lich with too many epithets got a video spotlight that basically filled in a few small cracks rather than reveal anything hugely exciting. Again, check our Call of Kel’Thuzad post for all the details on Heroes of the Storm’s latest and most-requested hero.
Stay tuned for everything we learn at Gamescom 2017.