Blizzard can celebrate more than just Overwatch‘s anniversary this week. Just over a week ahead of the game’s second anniversary, Blizzard announced that Overwatch has hit over 40 million total players. Overwatch‘s lead designer and game director Jeff Kaplan expressed his gratitude for such a milestone in a new Developer Update video as well as giving a few more details on next week’s Anniversary Event.
“We now have 40 million players, which is amazing,” said Kaplan, “and this is a great opportunity for us, the Overwatch team, to celebrate you all and all the amazing things you have done for the game.”
After spreading his appreciation for the fans, he gave some more insight on Petra, the new deathmatch-exclusive map. It has a mega health pack in the very center, which gets “increasingly dangerous as the match goes on.” He then promised great diversity in the map for both short-range heroes and snipers, which is great for all the Hanzo 2.0 mains out there. This new map, along with the other deathmatch-exclusive arena Chateau Guillard, will make up the new competitive deathmatch season.
Kaplan then made it clear that players will be able to unlock any item from any previous event with in-game credits or through the new event-specific loot boxes. However, Blizzard’s Community Manager Tom Powers confirmed that every item from the Summer Games 2017 Event and beyond will be their normal, expensive price. All previous items will be their regular discounted price. For example, a Summer Games 2016 legendary skin will cost 1,000 credits while a Summer Games 2017 legendary skin will cost 3,000 credits and so on.
None of the new 11 skins were shown in the video, but that didn’t stop Kaplan from dropping a cryptic hint. He stated that an oft-requested “dapper-looking gentleman” in “formal wear” would appear, which most likely means that Doomfist is getting his tuxedo skin from this Overwatch comic. We will find out for sure when the Anniversary Event starts on May 22nd.
