Recently, a new update for Overwatch PTR was released bringing a slew of changes to some of the heroes in Blizzard Entertainment’s team-based shooter. It also included workshop updates and bug fixes for those interested in trying all the new features planned for the game. However, there was one big exemption from the recent PTR patch notes. It seems Overwatch holiday maps will be playable all year round through custom modes.
Reddit user SerendipityDarkness posted about the holiday-themed Overwatch maps on the game’s subreddit that were not in the patch notes. They are only available in Custom Games in Overwatch PTR, which makes sense as Quick Play and Competitive Play are meant to reflect the most up to date version of the game.
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In order to find all the new Overwatch holiday maps, you will choose the “Play” option on the main menu. From there, go to the “Game Browser” option to the far right. This will open the “Find Game” page. At the top right, you will see the “+ Create” option which brings you to your own Create Game lobby. Choose “Settings” on the top right and then select maps. From there, you will see all the maps now available which include the surprising additions of the holiday-themed maps. Here are all the Overwatch holiday maps currently available in PTR:
Assault maps
- Hanamura (Winter)
Assault/Escort maps
- Blizzard World (Winter)
- Eichenwalde (Halloween)
- Hollywood (Halloween)
- King’s Row (Winter)
Control maps
- Lijiang Tower (Lunar New Year)
As you can see, this does only include holiday-themed maps during the Winter, Halloween, and Lunar New Year events that occur annually on Overwatch. It does not include specialty maps, such as Lúcioball, Junkenstein’s Revenge maps, or Archives-themed maps for King’s Row, Rialto, and Havana.
Typically, features introduced in PTR usually find their way to all platforms after properly tested. Players will give feedback about any given feature, and post them to either the PTR Feedback or PTR Bug Report forum depending on what the problem falls under. Once properly tested, that feature is brought to both the PC and console versions of Overwatch.
Despite the game being on all platforms, the Overwatch PTR is only available on the PC version. Recently, Blizzard Entertainment added a new hero to its ever-growing Overwatch roster with Sigma, who you can read more about here.
