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Blizzard Debuts New IP 'Overwatch' At BlizzCon With A Beta In 2015

Paul Tassi
This article is more than 5 years old.

Blizzard shocked everyone this afternoon by announcing their first new IP in eons outside of their famed Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo trilogy. It's called 'Overwatch,' and just debuted minutes ago early on at BlizzCon 2014.

The game first debuted with a cinematic trailer, then was followed by a an actual gameplay vid, and then finally it was announced an early build of the game would be playable all weekend for Blizzcon attendees.

That's one hell of a debut.

So what is Overwatch? There's still a lot to learn about it, but from what we know so far, it appears to be a Blizzard shooter MOBA in the style of the upcoming Battleborn from Gearbox and the immortal Team Fortress 2.

The lore sets the game in the (relatively) near future in a Pixar-ish universe where a group of heroes had their order disbanded, and many became mercenaries. The former members of the Overwatch group fight against the forces of evil, and the result is the multiplayer game we see before us today.

The intro vids debuted about ten characters or so, almost all of which had guns or projectiles of some kind. There's a giant armored Gorilla who can go bezerk, a dual-pistol wielding Reaper who gun-takas his way through rooms killing everything in sight. An angelic sniper medic, a Japanese samurai bowman, a mech-building inventor. There are a lot of familiar character types to be sure, but Blizzard has put their own spin on things.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about Overwatch is the fact that it was kept a total secret, a rarity in this industry, and many were guessing that Blizzard's big surprise was going to be a new Hearthstone expansion or something along those lines.

But past that, it's the timetable that's even more impressive. Blizzard could have just debuted the initial cinematic trailer and walked away, but they immediately followed it up with a gameplay video, and then announced the game was actually playable right that minute at the convention, with a beta coming in 2015. Needless to say, Blizzard is not known for moving quickly when it comes to their new releases, so the fact that they're debuting their first new IP in eons and the game seems ready to roll in just a short while makes this a really, really big deal. Blizzard does not do small franchises, and Overwatch could be the beginning of something huge for them.

As for being an FPSMOBA, that's a genre that was recently just coined by Battleborn, Gearbox's game which looks at least somewhat similar to this. And then there are obvious echoes of Team Fortress 2, though calling it a "clone" of either game is extremely unfair given the limited information we have.

It's interesting to see Blizzard essentially doubling down on the MOBA genre with this and Heroes of the Storm. HOTS is more of a direct competitor to king-of-the-mountain League of Legends, while Overwatch is expanding into a genre that doesn't really exist yet, so it seems like there's room for both in their roster. And past that, I think the most exciting thing about this is that this is a brand new Blizzard universe with new characters and lore. I'm very much hoping there's a single player campaign in Overwatch to flesh out the story and introduce the universe, but given the format we've seen, I'm not holding my breath.

There's obviously a ton we don't know about Overwatch, including the full roster of characters, if the game will feature things like upgradable items, if it will be PC only or on consoles as well, if it will be free-to-play, subscription or just a box copy. Perhaps Blizzard isn't even sure about all that themselves yet, but for now, this clearly seems like something for everyone to get excited about. More details to follow.


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