Overwatch (video game)

Overwatch is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Described as a "hero shooter", Overwatch assigns players into two teams of six, with each player selecting from a roster of over 30 characters, known as "heroes", each with a unique style of play that is divided into three general roles that fit their purpose. Players on a team work together to secure and defend control points on a map or escort a payload across the map in a limited amount of time. Players gain cosmetic rewards that do not affect gameplay, such as character skins and victory poses, as they play the game. The game was initially launched with only casual play, but a competitive ranked mode, various 'arcade' game modes, and a player-customizable server browser were added after release. Additionally, Blizzard has added new characters, maps, and game modes post-release, all free of charge, with the only additional cost to players being optional loot boxes to earn cosmetic items. It was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows in May 2016, and Nintendo Switch in October 2019.

Overwatch
Cover art featuring Tracer, one of the game's playable characters
Developer(s)	Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Blizzard Entertainment
Director(s)	Jeff Kaplan Chris Metzen Aaron Keller
Designer(s)	Jeremy Craig Michael Elliott Scott Mercer
Programmer(s)	Mike Elliott John LeFleur
Artist(s)	William Petras Arnold Tsang
Writer(s)	Michael Chu Alyssa Wong
Composer(s)	Derek Duke
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows PlayStation 4 Xbox One Nintendo Switch
Release	Windows, PS4, Xbox One May 24, 2016 Nintendo Switch October 15, 2019
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Overwatch is Blizzard's fourth major franchise and came about following the 2014 cancellation of the ambitious massively multiplayer online role-playing game Titan. A portion of the Titan team came up with the concept of Overwatch, based on the success of team-based first-person shooters like Team Fortress 2 and the popularity of multiplayer online battle arena games, creating a hero-based shooter that emphasized teamwork. Some elements of Overwatch borrow assets and concepts from the canceled Titan project. After establishing the narrative of an optimistic near-future Earth setting after a global crisis, the developers aimed to create a diverse cast of heroes that spanned genders and ethnicities as part of this setting. Significant time is spent adjusting the balance of the characters, making sure that new players would still be able to have fun while skilled players would present each other with a challenge.

Overwatch was unveiled at the 2014 BlizzCon event and was in a closed beta from late 2015 through early 2016. An open beta before release drew in nearly 10 million players. The release of the game was promoted with short animated videos to introduce the narrative and characters. Overwatch received universal acclaim from critics, who praised the game for its accessibility, diverse appeal of its hero characters, bright cartoonish art style, and enjoyable gameplay. Blizzard reported over US$1 billion in revenue during the first year of its release and had more than 50 million players after three years. Overwatch is considered to be among the greatest video games of all time, receiving numerous game of the year awards and other accolades. The game is also a popular esport, with Blizzard funding and producing the global Overwatch League.

A sequel, Overwatch 2, was announced in 2019 and will include new player versus environment (PvE) co-operative multiplayer modes. In addition, it will have a shared competitive multiplayer environment, allowing players of both games to play against each other. While it will be sold as a separate game, all-new heroes, maps, and competitive gamemodes will also exist in Overwatch.

Gameplay

Main article: Gameplay of Overwatch

A screenshot from Overwatch while in-match. The player (playing Tracer) and their allies are indicated in blue, while the opposing team is in red. The character's health bar is shown on the bottom left, their primary skills and attacks are shown on the bottom right, and their progress towards their ultimate ability is shown in the bottom center.

Overwatch is an online team-based game generally played as a first-person shooter. The game features several different game modes, principally designed around squad-based combat with two opposing teams of six players each. Players select one of over two dozen pre-made hero characters from one of three class types: Damage heroes that deal most of the damage to attack or defend control points, Tank heroes that can absorb a large amount of damage, and Support heroes that provide healing or other buffs for their teammates.[lower-alpha 1] Each hero has a unique skill kit, defining their intrinsic attributes like health points and running speed, their primary attacks, several active and passive skills, and an ultimate ability that can only be used after it has been charged through dealing damage to enemies and healing allies. Players can change their hero during the course of a match, as a goal of Overwatch's design was to encourage dynamic team compositions that adapt to the situation. The game's genre has been described by some journalists as a "hero shooter", due to its design around specific heroes and classes.[2][3]

The game features game modes for casual play, competitive ranked play, and for supporting esports competitions including Blizzard's Overwatch League. These modes generally are centered around sequentially securing control of points on the map, or escorting a payload between points on the map, with one team attacking while the other defends. Other modes set aside for casual matches include solo and team deathmatch, capture-the-flag, and unique modes run during various seasonal events. More recent updates have enabled users to craft their own game modes with a limited set of scripting tools. New characters and maps have also been added regularly to the game since launch, expanding the original hero roster from 21 to 32 by April 2020. Regardless of winning or losing a match, players gain experience towards a player level, and on gaining a new level, receive loot boxes that contain cosmetic items that they can use to customize the appearance of the hero characters but otherwise does not affect gameplay. Loot boxes can also be purchased through microtransactions.[4]

Plot

See also: Characters of Overwatch

The backstory to Overwatch is described through animated shorts and other information distributed by Blizzard in promoting the game.[5][6][7]

Overwatch is set sixty years into the future of a fictionalized Earth, thirty years after the resolution of what is known as the "Omnic Crisis."[8] Before the Omnic Crisis, humanity had been in a golden age of prosperity and technology development. Humans developed robots with artificial intelligence called "Omnics", which were put to use to achieve economic equality, and began to be treated as people in their own right. The Omnic Crisis began when the worldwide automated "omnium" facilities that produced them started producing a series of lethal, hostile robots that attacked humankind. Initially, individual countries responded with various programs: the United States developed its Soldier Enhancement Program to produce elite fighters, for example, while Germany assembled the knight-like Crusaders. When these efforts failed to ward off the Omnics, the United Nations quickly formed Overwatch, an international task force combining these individual programs to combat this threat and restore order.[9]

Two veteran soldiers from the Soldier Enhancement Program were put in charge of Overwatch: Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison. Though Overwatch successfully quelled the robotic uprising and brought many talented individuals to the forefront, a rift developed between Reyes and Morrison. Morrison was made the leader of Overwatch while Reyes was given charge of Blackwatch, Overwatch's covert operations division, fighting terrorist organizations like Talon, a group that appears to be trying to start a second Omnic Crisis, and Null Sector, a group of Omnics that revolted against the society that persecuted Omnics following the first Crisis.[9] Overwatch continued to maintain peace across the world for several decades in what came to be called the "Overwatch Generation" as the team gained more members, but the rift between Morrison and Reyes intensified. Several allegations of wrongdoing and failures were leveled at Overwatch, leading to a public outcry against the organization and in-fighting between its members, prompting the UN to investigate the situation. During this, an explosion destroyed Overwatch's headquarters in Switzerland, purportedly killing Morrison and Reyes among others. The UN passed the Petras Act, which dismantled Overwatch and forbade any Overwatch-type activity.[9]

Overwatch is set six years after the Petras Act; without Overwatch, corporations have started to take over, fighting and terrorism have broken out in parts of the globe, and there are signs of a second Omnic Crisis occurring in Russia. A former member of Overwatch, the intelligent gorilla Winston, decides to begin reforming Overwatch to protect the peace once again despite the Petras Act, with the team members recruiting old friends and gaining new allies in their fight.[10] Thus it is also revealed that Reyes and Morrison were not killed in the explosion, that, in fact, was the result of a battle between them: Morrison became a masked vigilante known as "Soldier: 76", who is trying to uncover the reasons why Overwatch was shut down; while Reyes joined Talon and became "Reaper", a terrorist disguised as Death.

Development

Main article: Development of Overwatch

Lead director Jeff Kaplan

Overwatch came about in the aftermath of Blizzard's decision to cancel the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Titan in 2013, a project that had been in development for about seven years. While most others assigned to the project were transferred to other departments within Blizzard, a small team of about 40 people, led by director Jeff Kaplan, were tasked to come up with a new concept for a game in a few months. After some brainstorming, they came onto the idea of a hero team-based shooter, building upon the success of games like Team Fortress 2 and multiplayer online battle arenas. They started with assets developed for Titan to demonstrate the proof-of-concept and were greenlit to build out the full game, the first new intellectual property that Blizzard had developed since StarCraft.[11][12]

The intra-company experience of Titan's cancellation served to help drive the narrative and setting. They created an optimistic vision of the near-future, some decades following the Omnic Crisis and the formation and collapse of the peacekeeping Overwatch group. This allowed them to create a diverse cast of characters, including non-human ones, and colorful settings from around the globe.[13] The Overwatch team continues to support the game through free updates, the introduction of new characters, maps, game modes, cosmetic items, seasonal events, and external media to support the game's narrative, as well as continuously tuning how the individual heroes play by monitoring meta-game statistics and user feedback.[14]

Marketing

Overwatch was formally announced at the BlizzCon event on November 7, 2014; the game was playable during the event to all attendees, with fourteen characters available to select from.[15] During this event, Blizzard released a cinematic trailer and an extended gameplay video for the game.[16][17] A month after the BlizzCon event, on December 2014, Blizzard published character introduction videos to its YouTube channel and followed up on this May 2015 by posting weekly videos of game footage and character highlights.[15]

A closed beta period for Overwatch across all three platforms began on October 27, 2015.[18] The closed beta was put on "extended break" in December and brought back in February 2016.[19] Following the March 2016 release announcement, Blizzard announced an open beta period from May 5 to 9 for any registered user of the Battle.net client.[20][21] The open beta proved popular with Blizzard reporting over 9.7 million players participating,[22] and as a way of showing thanks, extended the open beta period by one extra day.[23]

In the week before release, Blizzard arranged to have three giant-sized boxes (approximately 15 feet (4.6 m) tall) of various Overwatch heroes, as if being sold as packaged action figures, put on display across the globe at Hollywood, Paris, and Busan, South Korea.[24][25][26] The displays were created by Alliance Studios, led by Steve Wang, who has collaborated with Blizzard before on past projects, and Eddie Yang.[27] After planning the design of the sculptures in January 2016, teams across the world, including Droga5, Scicon, Stratasys and Egads, raced to print, finish and assemble the works in time for the game's release.[28] Propelled by Overwatch, Blizzard had over 50% of the American advertisement share among gaming industry brands from May 16 to June 15, 2016.[29]

Overwatch was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on May 24, 2016. Blizzard allowed retailers to sell physical copies of the game a day before help players prepare for the servers' launch.[30][31]

Two special editions of Overwatch were released alongside the base game. The Origins Edition, available both as a downloadable and retail product, includes the base game and five additional character skins, as well as other bonus items for other Blizzard games via Battle.net.[32] The Collectors Edition, only available as retail, includes the Origins Edition content as well as a statue of Soldier: 76, one of the playable characters, along with the game's soundtrack and a source book.[33]

In honor of its first anniversary in 2017, Blizzard released a digital Game of the Year edition of Overwatch. It includes all content from the Origins Edition, in addition to ten free loot boxes.[34] Blizzard has expressed interest in supporting cross-platform play between console systems in the future, though has no plans for Windows-supported cross-play due to the precision advantage of keyboard-mouse controls over controller-based ones.[35][36]

The Nintendo Switch version of the game, entitled Overwatch: Legendary Edition, was announced during the September 2019 Nintendo Direct, was released in North America and Europe on October 15, 2019,[37] and is scheduled for release in Japan on November 29, 2019. The Switch version, developed by Iron Galaxy, includes support for the console's gyroscopic controls for some actions, such as controlling Junkrat's Rip-tire, and maneuvering Wrecking Ball in his spherical form.[37][38][39] The version is equivalent to the existing version of the game on other platforms, including all heroes, maps, and game modes, although Switch players will not be able to participate in the game's current Competition season as to give players a chance to adjust to the console's controls before introducing ranked play.[40] The version has a game case for retailers in North America and Europe but does not include a physical Game Card, featuring a download code instead.[41]

Related media and merchandise

See also: Overwatch animated media and Overwatch (digital comic series)

Blizzard opted to tell the story of Overwatch across various mediums, rather than include a story mode; Chu stated, "One of the things that's really great is we're able to leverage the strengths of these different mediums to tell different parts of the story," citing Soldier: 76's appearances in fake news reports, an animated video narrated from his perspective, as well as the Hero short.[42] Chu remarked that Blizzard's method of storytelling with Overwatch demonstrated a "gameplay first" philosophy.[43] In 2018, Blizzard hired Alyssa Wong to help with the development of Overwatch's narrative.[44]

In March 2016, Blizzard announced that they would be releasing comics and animated shorts based on Overwatch in 2016. The related media included plans for a graphic novel called Overwatch: First Strike, which would have focused on the story of several in-game characters, including Soldier: 76, Torbjörn, Reaper, and Reinhardt. The novel was to be penned by writer Micky Neilson and artist Ludo Lullabi.[45] Blizzard opted to cancel First Strike in November 2016, with Chu stating that since the announcement of the graphic novel, Overwatch's narrative development has gone in a somewhat different direction, changing out these origin stories would work. Blizzard still plans to reveal more of the characters' backstory in time.[46]

Blizzard began releasing the series of animated shorts in March 2016; the shorts maintained the style of the game's cinematic trailer, which centered on a battle in which Tracer and Winston fought Reaper and Widowmaker in the Overwatch Museum.[17] A collection of these cinematic sequences played in movie theaters across the United States as part of the game's launch event.[47] The first episode of the animated short series, Recall, was released on March 23. It centers on Winston and Reaper, and features flashbacks to Winston's childhood.[48] The second episode, Alive, showcased a standoff between Tracer and Widowmaker and was released on April 5.[49] The third episode, Dragons, featuring the brothers Hanzo and Genji, was released on May 16.[50] The fourth and final episode of the series' first season, Hero, stars Soldier: 76, and was released May 22.[51]

Overwatch characters and elements have been brought over to the Blizzard's crossover MOBA game, Heroes of the Storm. Nine characters[lower-alpha 2] appear as playable heroes in the game, with the battlegrounds based on the Overwatch maps Hanamura and Volskaya Industries also being added.[52][53][54] Tracer debuted in the video game Heroes of the Storm in its April 2016 update, nearly a month prior to the release of Overwatch.[55] Hanzo has been added alongside Alexstrasza as part of the "Dragons of the Nexus" event in December 2017.[56]

A 100-page art book featuring various artwork and art prototypes from the game, titled The Art of Overwatch, was published by Dark Horse Comics in October 2017.[57] Funko has produced several Overwatch character figurines in their Pop line since the game's launch.[58] Starting in 2017, Good Smile Company began producing Nendoroid figurines of various Overwatch characters, starting with Tracer and followed by Mercy and Mei.[59] Blizzard also worked with Nerf to design Overwatch-stylized toy guns as part of their Nerf Rivals line,[60][61] and The Lego Group to create Overwatch Lego toys starting in October 2018.[62][63][64] Hasbro is producing a line of Overwatch-based action figures to be released in the second quarter of 2019.[65]

Three Overwatch short stories were released in 2019. The first, "Bastet", focuses on Ana and Soldier: 76.[66] The second, "What You Left Behind", focuses on the character of Baptiste.[67] The third, "Valkyrie", focuses on Mercy.[68] An Overwatch cookbook was released in October 2019.[69][70] In October 2019, an Overwatch young adult novel series from Scholastic was announced, with the first book, The Hero of Numbani, slated for release in May 2020.[71][72]

Esports

Overwatch was not developed with any dedication towards esports, focusing on "building a great competitive game" first and foremost, according to Morhaime, though they recognized that the game had potential as an esports game through internal testing.[73] Although Blizzard had success with committing to esports with the development of Starcraft II, they had found that "it's dangerous to be overly committed to esport too early in the lifespan of the game," according to Kaplan instead seeing how the community developed this over time as they saw from Hearthstone.[74] Kaplan stated that while esports was not a design goal, they included and planned for features for the game to support the competitive community.[74] This included the introduction of the game's competitive mode some months after the game's launch after seeing how players took towards Overwatch; Blizzard saw the ladder-approach they used as a means for skilled players to reach high ranks as to be noticed by esport team organizers.[73] Dan Szymborski writing for ESPN stated that Overwatch was poised as the next big esport for having a sufficiently different look and playstyle from established esports games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Call of Duty, enough variety in maps and characters, and strong support from Blizzard to maintain the game for a long time.[75] Bryant Francis writing for Gamasutra noted the speed and short match times of Overwatch make the game highly favorable for viewership, further supporting the game as an esports title.[76]

Just before the game's release, PC Gamer writer Stefan Dorresteijn contacted professional esports players and hosts for their opinions. Longtime esports host Paul Chaloner stated that "[Overwatch] needs a much better spectator system," going on to elaborate, "Right now, it's incredibly difficult for commentators and viewers to see the skills of the players: who used their ultimates and how did they interact? Who is on cooldown and who has changed hero?"[77] Fellow esports player Seb Barton and Michael Rosen criticized the game's map designs and game modes; Barton remarked that "the game modes are a little hit and miss," adding that "King of the hill [Control] is super exciting and fast-paced but then you have the payload [Escort] maps, which are just a snoozefest for everyone involved."[77] Rosen expressed a need for tweaking to the maps used for the control game mode, as they are "just too prone to the snowball effect. The moment the attacking team captures the first control point they don't just have the momentum but also the last advantage for the second and final capture point."[77]

The first organized, prize-winning competitions for Overwatch started in mid-2016, a few months after launch. The esports organizer ESL held the first international Overwatch competition in August 2016, called Overwatch Atlantic Showdown.[78] The competition used four open qualifiers beginning in June, followed by regional qualifiers and then a final online qualifier. Eight teams then competed for a six-figure prize in the finals to be held at Gamescom 2016 from August 20–21.[79] Turner Broadcasting's ELeague announced the first Overwatch Open tournament, starting on July 2016, with a total prize pool of $300,000, with plans to broadcast the finals on Turner's cable channel TBS in September 2016.[80] In November 2016, Blizzard hosted their own Overwatch World Cup, allowing users to vote for teams to represent their nation or region, with finals taking place during their BlizzCon event.[81] Overwatch grew increasingly in South Korea since it was released. It topped gaming cafes in Korea in terms of player count, surpassing that of League of Legends.[82] The game influenced the creation of an esports tournament in the region, under the brand APEX, which was shut down in January 2018,[83] replacing these and other regional tournaments with the structured Overwatch Contenders, which serves as a minor league to the Overwatch League. To support viewership of its professional competitions, Blizzard released a companion Overwatch application in November 2018 that gives viewers a means to watch matches through a spectator mode.[84]

Overwatch League

Main article: Overwatch League

At the 2016 BlizzCon, Blizzard announced their plans for their Overwatch League, using an organization of permanent teams in league placements similar to more traditional North American professional sports leagues,[85] rather than the use of promotion and relegation used in a series like League of Legends Championship Series.[86] Blizzard sought potential team owners including New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke, and by November 2017, had established 12 franchises around the world with plans to expand further in later seasons. Contracted players on these franchises are guaranteed a minimum salary, benefits, and revenue sharing.

The first season of the League started in January 2018, with teams vying for a US$one million League winner prize, alongside other winnings from a total prize pool of US$3.5 million. The second season brought in an additional eight franchise for a total of twenty. In the first and second season, nearly all games outside the finals were played at Blizzard Arena in Burbank, California, while the third season will see teams traveling between homestand events across the globe, as is more traditional of league structures.[86][87]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic NS: 73/100[88] PC: 91/100[89] PS4: 90/100[90] XONE: 91/100[91] Review scores Publication Score Destructoid 10/10[92] EGM 9/10[93] Game Informer 10/10[94] GameRevolution [95] GameSpot 9/10[96] GamesRadar+ [97] IGN 9.4/10[98] PC Gamer (US) 88/100[99] Polygon 8/10[100] VideoGamer.com 9/10[101] PlayStation LifeStyle 10/10[102] The Escapist [103] The Guardian [104]
Edit on Wikidata

Before its release, Overwatch experienced a period of pre-launch attention not typically expected; Game Revolution noted that "[Overwatch's] reputation has quickly permeated through cyberspace, attracting attention from people who may not traditionally put down $40 to $60 each time a new first-person shooter releases."[105] The game's open beta, which attracted 9.7 million players, was very heavily covered by the media.[106]

Overwatch received "universal acclaim" upon release, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[89][90][91] IGN's Vince Ingenito praised the game's characters and maps, writing "Overwatch takes just about every possible opportunity to make its cast and locales seem like people and places rather than puppets and scenery." Ingenito added that the game has a "strong online experience that gets you into games quickly and reliably."[98] The Verge's Andrew Webster praised Overwatch and previous titles Titanfall and Splatoon as "friendly online shooters" that have room for both new and casual players who may not desire to master the game but can still compete fairly with others, and for expert players that can utilize the various heroes to adapt to the dynamic tactics of the game.[107] Webster went on to cite the atmosphere of Overwatch as a reason for the game's approachability, writing, "The first thing that makes Overwatch's world appealing and approachable is, well, its world. This isn't the dour brown-and-grey shooter you might be used to. Instead, it's bright and colorful, with a cast of characters that's eclectic and diverse."[107] Caty McCarthy of Kill Screen echoed similar thoughts, writing "When playing Overwatch, the player is absorbed by its radiating positivity. It's a world filled with lively color and energetic, playful competition, much like Nintendo's creative kid-friendly ink-shooter Splatoon."[108] Mike Minotti of VentureBeat commending the team-based gameplay, the game's diverse character roster, and colorful settings, as well as the unlockable cosmetics earned through level progression and the smooth server connection.[109] Referencing its similarities to Team Fortress 2, Minotti confirmed that "[Overwatch has] distinct classes, the team- and objective-based combat, and a bright, cartoon-like art style," and that "Overwatch certainly takes plenty of inspiration from Valve online shooter series," but opines that "[Overwatch is] just better."[109] Daniel Tack of The News & Observer positively received the game, expressing that "no matter what happens – win or lose – you’re going to have fun," adding that "the game's strength lies in its simplicity and polish."[110] Tack went on to praise the game's characters, writing "Unforgettable characters are the lifeblood and driving force of Overwatch."[110] The Denver Post's Hugh Johnson lauded the game for its emphasis on characters, rather than focusing on traditional first-person shooter tropes, such as weapon load-outs and incremental level upgrades.[111] Johnson went on to insist that the characters are balanced writing, "The big question with class-based shooters like these is whether or not the characters are balanced," expressing that "some characters are naturally better, but no character is so overpowered that their mere presence spells doom for their opponents."[111] In June 2016, Vulture's Joshua Rivera listed Overwatch as one of the "best video games of 2016 (so far)," writing, "It's hard to separate Overwatch the game from Overwatch the phenomenon—and why bother, both are fascinating."[112]

The online magazine Inverse, while expressing an overall positive reception for the game, pointed out the balance of McCree, teams composed of only one character, issues with matchmaking, and the Play of the Game as problems that should be fixed by the game's development team.[113] Gabe Gurwin of Digital Trends, directed criticism at Blizzard, for their decision to exclude the story from the game, which left players "with a great game, a great story, and no way to reconcile the two."[43]

Shortly after the game's competitive play mode was released, Kotaku's Nathan Grayson stated that "Overwatch's competitive mode [is not] all that bad, for how new and unpolished it is," but opined that "high-stakes competition and toxicity tend to go hand-in-hand, and Overwatch's competitive mode already has an ugly toxic stain." Grayson concluded his piece with "Overwatch is, most of the time, a feel-good team game. Introducing high-stakes competition with a muddled message about the importance of individual skill drags the game into confused, oftentimes negative territory. If Blizzard wants this thing to work, they're gonna have to figure out a competitive framework that's true to Overwatch's spirit, rather than just the spirit of competition."[114] Kaplan acknowledged that with the introduction of competitive mode that the whole of the Overwatch community has become more toxic, and they are continually adapting elements behind the scenes to help deal with aggressive players more responsibly, while trying to promote more enjoyable matches.[115]

Sales

Overwatch player growth

A week from its launch, Blizzard reported over seven million Overwatch players with a total accumulated playtime of 119 million hours;[116] Blizzard reported more than 10 million players by mid-June[117] and has reported continued increases in the player base, with 50 million players as of November 2019.[118] The NPD Group, a video game industry tracking firm, reported that Overwatch was the third best-selling retail video game (nb. discounting digital sales through Battle.net) in the US in May 2016 on the month of its release, and was the top-selling game on June 2016;[119][120] the NPD Group later reported it was the 7th highest selling game by revenue (excluding Battle.net sales) in the United States for all of 2016.[121] With digital sales, Overwatch was the fastest-selling game during its release month.[122] SuperData Research estimated that Overwatch brought in more than $269 million in revenues from digital sales worldwide in May,[123] and over $565 million in sales on personal computers along by the end of 2016, making it the highest-grossing paid game for personal computers that year.[124]

In Activision-Blizzard's quarterly earnings report for Q1 2017, the company reported that Overwatch revenues had exceeded one billion dollars, the eighth such property owned by the company to do so.[125] In June 2016, Gametrics, a South Korean internet cafe survey website, reported that Overwatch overtook League of Legends as the most popular game played across 4,000 of South Korea's PC bangs at the time.[126] In 2018, Overwatch raised over $12.7 million for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, which they generated from selling a special pink-colored Mercy skin where all proceeds went towards it.[127] By July 2019, total in-game spending in Overwatch exceeded one billion dollars as estimated by SuperData, the sixth Activision-Blizzard product line to reach this metric.[128]

Controversies

While the developers were aiming to avoid sexualization of the characters, there was some criticism of the female characters of the game during its development. In February 2015, Anita Sarkeesian commented on the lack of diversity in the female heroes' body types from the game's first twelve revealed characters,[129] while Nathan Grayson of Kotaku remarked that "Overwatch's women are mostly super slim and clad in cat suits."[130] In March 2015, the development team revealed a new character, Zarya, who is a female Russian bodybuilder with a muscular body, and pledged commitment to diversity.[131]

Following promotional images featuring the female character Tracer in March 2016, a thread on Blizzard's official forums drew attention to one of Tracer's victory poses, which was criticized by a user as out of character and oversexualized. Kaplan apologized for the pose, stating "The last thing we want to do is make someone feel uncomfortable, under-appreciated or misrepresented," and confirmed that Blizzard planned to replace the pose. Kaplan's response drew mixed reactions from the gaming community, with many claiming Blizzard had forgone its creative control over the game and censored its content to placate one offended user, while others praised Blizzard's willingness to listen to the community and adhere to standards for portraying a character according to their personality. Kaplan later stated that the team was already unsure of the pose and was thinking of changing it.[132] The following week, a replacement pose was released, although it was noted to be similar to the original pose.[133][134] The replacement pose was alleged to be influenced by Billy DeVorss cheesecake pin-up art.[134] The pose was replaced during the game's beta period.[133]

Following the game's release, some of the alternative outfits for characters had come under criticism for using cultural stereotypes, such as a Native American headdress option for the character of Pharah, who seemed to be primarily of Egyptian origin. Kaplan noted that they had considered if these outfits were appropriate, and believed they were respecting the cultures of the characters they had created and would make necessary changes if they felt there were valid concerns. Kaplan commented that many players have responded positively to these outfits and feel they fit in appropriately with the idealized version of Earth.[135] Later game developments showed that Pharah was set out as a half-Egyptian/half-Native American character, making such outfits appropriate in hindsight.[136]

In July 2016, the President of the Universal Society of Hinduism (Rajan Zed) urged Blizzard to remove two of Symmetra's hero cosmetic items from the game since they could be seen as inappropriate and not accurate towards the beliefs and practices of Hinduism. In Hinduism, devotees put their destinies in the hands of their gods and goddesses; this is a stark contrast to how he believes they are portrayed within the game.[137] Zed has in the past commented on other video game depictions of Hindu-inspired gods, such as in the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game Smite.[138][139]

In Overwatch's Asia servers, there were problems with numerous players using cheats tied to the growing number of younger players using PC bangs in South Korea that allowed them to play Overwatch on an inexpensive hourly rate rather than purchasing the game. As these players do not need permanent accounts, they can use disposable Battle.net accounts and employ game hacks without repercussions, and if that account is banned, they can quickly make another and continue playing. Blizzard continues to block these accounts at a rate of thousands per day, but have not been able to find a more permanent solution.[140] Subsequently, Blizzard announced that players from South Korea would be required to log into a Battle.net account to play the game from February 2017 onward, which requires a difficult-to-spoof resident registration number among other unique information, which Blizzard believes would help to alleviate the problem.[141]

As to maintain a fair competitive field on consoles, Blizzard has spoken out against the use of input converters that would allow console players to use keyboard/mouse controllers, believing this gives an advantage to players that can afford the converter.[142] Some players have criticized the ability to use these converters, as players with them often populate the top of the competitive ranking ladders. Though Blizzard has appealed to Sony and Microsoft to either prevent such converters, or to detect when such converters are used as to be able to segregate players into servers based on this, disabled players have spoken out against such action, as many need to use such converters to play the game on consoles lacking the ability to use a normal controller.[143]

After a year from its release, journalists observed that the player community was becoming more toxic, disrupting the enjoyment of playing the game. It was believed this came from the nature of the game that requires teamwork, and when teammates see players unwilling to switch to different heroes to balance the team or otherwise play for individual gains, this would cause the teammates to become angry and lash out at the player, become griefers and throw the match, or other harmful behavior that would spread over time, particularly in the game's competitive mode. Players are able to report malicious users with in-game tools, and Blizzard can ban players for egregious actions, but they do not attempt to segregate out bad actors from the larger pool (a method used by other developers in multiplayer games), instead keeping an inclusive community for all non-banned players, which is believed to contribute to the growing toxicity. Kaplan said in a September 2017 update that Blizzard was very well aware of the problem, and have worked to improve their in-game player behavior reporting tools to help combat the toxicity, but because they have had to put greater effort into this, they are distracted from developing new features and content for the game. Kaplan urged the community to consider how they can improve individually and as a whole to help combat the situations.[144][145][146]

In November 2017, the Belgian Gaming Commission announced that it was investigating Overwatch alongside Star Wars Battlefront II to determine whether loot boxes constituted unlicensed gambling.[147] Many Asian and European countries view loot boxes as a form of gambling and have since decided to make them illegal for companies to sell directly to their consumers in their games.[148] Blizzard has chosen to work with these regions to follow their gambling laws while staying true to their microtransaction focused business model. Within China, Blizzard has allowed their players to purchase in-game currency and receive loot boxes as a "gift."[149] In addition to this loot box change, China has required Blizzard to publicly disclose the exact odds of winning each tier of item within said loot box.[150][151] While initially loot boxes were not seen as gambling within the United States; the US Federal Trade Commission has recently decided to investigate the legality of the projected soon to be 50 billion dollar industry of microtransactions.[152][153]

Awards

Overwatch won numerous awards in 2016, including being named Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2016, D.I.C.E. Awards, and Game Developers Choice Awards, as well as several awards and nominations highlighting its game direction and as a leading multiplayer game. Several publications, including IGN,[154] GameSpot,[155][156][157][158] Game Revolution,[159] EGMNow,[160] GamesTM,[161] The Escapist,[162] Game Informer[163] and Eurogamer,[164] named Overwatch the best game of 2016, receiving 102 "game of the year" awards across critics and reader polls.[165]

Giant Bomb gave it the awards for "Best Debut" and "Best Multiplayer",[166][167] and put it in third place for "Game of the Year".[168] Polygon and Slant Magazine also put the game in third place for "Game of the Year",[169][170] while PC Gamer gave it the award for "Best Multiplayer".[171] Besides "Game of the Year", The Escapist also gave it the awards for "Best Shooter and Multiplayer".[172] Game Informer also gave it the awards for "Best Competitive Multiplayer" and "Best Shooter".[173][174] At IGN's Best of 2016 Awards, the game also won the awards for "Best Shooter", "Best eSports Game", "Best Multiplayer", and "PC Game of the Year".[154] In IGN's Best of 2017 Awards, the game won the People's Choice Award for "Best Spectator Game",[175] while Game Informer gave it the award for "Best Shooter as Service" in their 2017 Shooter of the Year Awards.[176]

In the years since its release, Overwatch has continued to be nominated and awarded for its strength as an esports game, as well as the ongoing content added to the title.

Year	Award	Category	Result	Ref
2016	Golden Joystick Awards	Best Original Game	Won	[177][178]
		Best Visual Design	Nominated
		Best Audio	Nominated
		Best Multiplayer Game	Won
		Best Gaming Moment (Play of the Game)	Won
		Game of the Year	Nominated
		PC Game of the Year	Won
		Competitive Game of the Year	Won
	The Game Awards 2016	Game of the Year	Won	[179][180]
		Best Game Direction	Won
		Best Art Direction	Nominated
		Best Action Game	Nominated
		Best Multiplayer	Won
		ESports Game of the Year	Won
	Hollywood Music in Media Awards	Best Original Score – Video Game	Won	[181]
2017	D.I.C.E. Awards	Game of the Year	Won	[182]
		Action Game of the Year	Won
		Outstanding Achievement in Animation	Nominated
		Outstanding Technical Achievement	Nominated
		Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay	Won
		Outstanding Achievement in Game Design	Won
	2017 SXSW Gaming Awards	Video Game of the Year	Nominated	[183][184]
		ESports Game of the Year	Won
		Trending Game of the Year	Won
		Excellence in Design	Nominated
		Most Promising New Intellectual Property	Won
		Most Memorable Character (Tracer)	Nominated
		Excellence in Multiplayer	Won
		Excellence in Art	Nominated
		Excellence in Animation	Nominated
	Game Developers Choice Awards	Game of the Year	Won	[185][186]
		Best Audio	Nominated
		Best Design	Won
		Best Technology	Nominated
		Best Visual Art	Nominated
	13th British Academy Games Awards	Best Game	Nominated	[187][188]
		Game Design	Nominated
		Multiplayer	Won
		Original Property	Nominated
		AMD Esports Audience Award	Nominated
	ASCAP Composers' Choice Awards	2016 Video Game Score of the Year	Nominated	[189]
	2017 Teen Choice Awards	Choice Video Game	Won	[190]
	Golden Joystick Awards	eSports Game of the Year	Won	[191][192]
		Still Playing	Nominated
	The Game Awards 2017	Best Ongoing Game	Won	[193]
		Best eSports Game	Won
2018	14th British Academy Games Awards	Evolving Game	Won	[194]
	2018 Webby Awards	Best Game Design	Won	[195]
		Best Multiplayer/Competitive Game	Won
	2018 Teen Choice Awards	Choice Video Game	Nominated	[196][197]
	Golden Joystick Awards	Still Playing Award	Nominated	[198][199]
		eSports Game of the Year	Won
	The Game Awards 2018	Best Ongoing Game	Nominated	[200][201]
		Best eSports Game	Won
	Gamers' Choice Awards	Fan Favorite Game	Nominated	[202]
		Fan Favorite Multiplayer Game	Nominated
		Fan Favorite Shooter Game	Nominated
		Fan Favorite eSports Game	Nominated
		Fan Favorite eSports League Format (OWL)	Nominated
		Fan Favorite eSport Event of the Year (Overwatch League Grand Finals)	Nominated
2019	2019 SXSW Gaming Awards	Most Evolved Game	Nominated	[203]
	15th British Academy Games Awards	Evolving Game	Nominated	[204]
	2019 Webby Awards	Best Multiplayer/Competitive Game (People's Voice)	Won	[205]
	Golden Joystick Awards	eSports Game of the Year	Nominated	[206]
	The Game Awards 2019	Best eSports Game	Nominated	[207]
		Best eSports Event (2019 Overwatch League Grand Finals)	Nominated
2020	GLAAD Media Awards	Outstanding Video Game	Nominated	[208]

Legacy

Cosplay of various Overwatch characters at New York Comic Con 2016

Overwatch's fan base has been noted to be generally kind and supportive; Daniel Starkey of Wired wrote, "where many fresh games struggle with an endless stream of player complaints and developer-prodding, Overwatch's community is vivacious and jubilant."[16] A gamer with cerebral palsy publicly praised the game's customizable controls, which let him make his first snipe in a video game.[209][210] One of Blizzard's artists, Roman Kenney, drew concept art based on one player's daughter's original Overwatch character design.[211] Blizzard altered one of the game's maps to include a tribute to an avid Chinese fan of the game who died from injuries while trying to stop a motorcycle theft on the day before the game's public release.[212]

Blizzard has encouraged fans of Overwatch to make artistic content based on the game.[213] To support this, Blizzard released the hero reference kit before release, providing official colors and costume and weapon designs for all 21 heroes present at the game's launch.[214] Fans have used these, the game's animated media, and other assets to create a large amount of content, including art,[215][216] cosplay,[217][218] and anime opening-style music videos.[219][220] Some Overwatch concepts have created internet memes such as "Gremlin D.Va", which focuses on the character D.Va, portrayed through Western gamer stereotypes.[221] In some cases, Blizzard has reciprocated these fan creations back into the game, such as an emote for D.Va, based on the Gremlin meme.[222] At the 2017 D.I.C.E. Summit in February 2017, Kaplan said that much of Overwatch's narrative is now being borne out of the game's fans, adding "We love it, that it belongs to them...We’re just the custodians of the universe."[13] Kaplan recognizes that he himself is seen as an Overwatch character within the fan community, and following similar steps that Hearthstone's lead designer Ben Brode has done, has continued to engage with the fan community.[223]

Pornographic fan art of the game is popular, with Pornhub searches of Overwatch characters partaking in sexual activities spiking by 817% shortly after the release of the open beta.[224] A large amount of such pornographic fan works are created with Valve's Source Filmmaker tool and make use of the game's assets, which were ripped from the game during its closed beta and consequently spread over the internet.[225] Blizzard made efforts to remove the works.[213] Kaplan stated that while the studio does not want to infringe on anyone's freedom of expression, Blizzard is mindful that many players are not adults and would hope the community would try to keep such imagery away from them.[135]

Overwatch 2

The logo of Overwatch 2

Overwatch 2, a standalone sequel, was announced at BlizzCon on November 1, 2019. The game will maintain a "shared multiplayer environment" between it and the original Overwatch, so that the players in either game can compete together in the existing player versus player (PvP) modes, retaining all unlocked cosmetics and other features.[226] Jeff Kaplan stated that this was a major push he had to argue for this "player-first standpoint" to his superiors at Blizzard, given the current industry trend to draw in new sales.[227] All new heroes, maps, and PvP modes will be added to both games to maintain this shared environment.[228] At least four new heroes will be added, which include Echo, a flying robot previously seen in the cinematic short "Reunion", and Sojourn, a Black Canadian Overwatch officer introduced in the Overwatch Archive seasonal events.[229] A new PvP mode, "Push", will be introduced, which functions like a tug of war, where each team is vying for control of a robot that is pushing a team's payload to the opponent's side of the map when a team controls it. Push will become part of the standard map rotation in the Overwatch League as well as be available for Quick and Competitive play.[230]

The game will also have persistent player versus environment modes (PvE). These are similar to the special seasonal events, which will feature four-player cooperative missions against computer-controlled opponents. In this mode, players can gain experience for the hero they are using, and at certain experience levels, unlock new passive skills that boost the hero's current abilities, allowing them to customize how the hero plays. At least two PvE modes will be added: a story-based mission mode, where players are limited to their hero selection in replaying missions based on Overwatch's lore, and Hero missions which allow all heroes to be used in fending off waves of enemies at various locations.[226]

Overwatch 2 will run on an upgraded version of the original game's engine which allows for larger map sizes to better support the new story-based PvE elements.[226] Additionally, all of the existing heroes are getting visual redesigns for Overwatch 2, although Blizzard does not expect every hero to have theirs finished by the time Overwatch 2 launches, with twelve of the existing 31 completed at the time of the game's reveal.[229] Overwatch 2 is expected to release for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, although there is currently no set release window. Kaplan stated they were more concerned about quality of the product than timeliness of the release.[231][232] Kaplan anticipates that, ultimately, Overwatch and Overwatch 2 will merge into a single product to avoid having any engine differences affect player experience.[233]

Notes

1. The game originally had four character classes prior to a June 2018 update, which combined the "offense" and "defense" classes into a single "damage" class.[1]
2. Tracer, Zarya, Lúcio, Genji, D.Va, Ana, Junkrat, Hanzo, and Mei are available in Heroes of the Storm

References

1. Watts, Steve (June 26, 2018). "Overwatch Update Makes For Friendlier Post-Matches". Gamespot. Archived from the original on June 27, 2018. Retrieved June 26, 2018.
2. Wood, Austin (October 25, 2016). "What the strange evolution of the hero shooter tells us about the genre's future". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
3. Wawro, Alex. "Hero Shooters: Charting the (re)birth of a genre". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on August 15, 2019. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
4. Molina, Brett (November 7, 2014). "Blizzard unveils team-based shooter 'Overwatch'". USA Today. Archived from the original on November 9, 2014. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
5. Purchese, Robert (May 23, 2016). "Yes, Overwatch has a story. Here's everything you need to know". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on June 13, 2016. Retrieved June 15, 2016.
6. Ramos, Jeff (May 24, 2016). "The Definitive Overwatch Timeline". Polygon. Archived from the original on June 21, 2016. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
7. Kane, Alex (April 18, 2017). "The Ever-Expanding Lore of 'Overwatch' Explained". Glixel. Archived from the original on April 19, 2017. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
8. Chu, Michael (August 17, 2016). "Hey Dev Team, can we get an Overwatch Timeline". Overwatch Forums. Archived from the original on December 27, 2019. Retrieved November 3, 2019.
9. Adler, Matthew (November 7, 2019). "Overwatch: The Story So Far". IGN. Archived from the original on November 7, 2019. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
10. Shaw, Olympia (May 27, 2016). "Overwatch is Back: Uncertainty and Hope After UN Confirms Vigilante Activity". PlayOverwatch. Archived from the original on July 18, 2016.
11. Yin-Poole, Wesley (March 14, 2017). "Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan traces line from Project Titan to Overwatch". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on March 15, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
12. Tach, Dave (November 7, 2014). "Overwatch includes pieces of Blizzard's canceled MMO Titan". Polygon. Archived from the original on November 8, 2014. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
13. Graft, Kris (February 22, 2017). "How Overwatch's bleak beginnings turned into positivity and inclusiveness". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on February 23, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
14. Matulef, Jeffery (December 7, 2015). "Overwatch's post-release heroes and maps will be free". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved December 8, 2015.
15. Cunningham, Zoran (June 7, 2016). "How Blizzard built the Overwatch hype train and rode it to success". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on June 7, 2016. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
16. Starkey, Daniel (May 30, 2016). "How Overwatch Became a Rarity: The Troll-Free Online Shooter". Wired. Archived from the original on June 8, 2016. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
17. Overwatch Cinematic Trailer. PlayOverwatch. YouTube. November 7, 2014. Archived from the original on June 9, 2016. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
18. Makuch, Eddie (March 6, 2015). "New Overwatch Characters Revealed, Beta Starts This Fall". GameSpot. Archived from the original on March 7, 2015. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
19. Pereira, Chris. "Overwatch Beta Going Offline Until January". Gamespot. Archived from the original on December 4, 2015. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
20. Makuch, Eddie (March 7, 2016). "Overwatch Release Date, Xbox One/PS4/PC Open Beta Announced". GameSpot. Archived from the original on March 9, 2016. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
21. "Overwatch beta: when it starts and how to get on it". VG247. May 4, 2016. Archived from the original on June 2, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
22. Vincent, Brittany (May 13, 2016). "'Overwatch' open beta pulls in over 9 million players". Engadget. Archived from the original on June 4, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
23. Hillier, Brenna (May 9, 2016). "Overwatch open beta extended by 24 hours – get in there". VG247. Archived from the original on May 28, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
24. Matulef, Jeffrey (May 20, 2016). "Giant Overwatch action figures appear around the world". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on May 31, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
25. Yehl, Joshua (May 20, 2016). "Giant Overwatch Action Figures Unveiled Across the World". IGN. Archived from the original on June 1, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
26. Favis, Elise (May 21, 2016). "Giant Overwatch Action Figures Appear Across The World". Game Informer. Archived from the original on May 24, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
27. Westlake, Adam (May 21, 2016). "Blizzard sets up giant Overwatch action figures across the globe". Slashgear. Archived from the original on May 24, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
28. Akhtar, Aiman (May 25, 2016). "Assembling The Giants: Part 1". Mold3D. Archived from the original on May 28, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
29. Cappetta, Jon (June 25, 2016). "Overwatch rules the airwaves as WWE and Kirby fight for your eyeballs". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on July 8, 2016. Retrieved June 28, 2016.
30. Pereira, Chris (May 16, 2016). "Overwatch Heads to Retail a Day Early, But Only So You Can Get Ready for Launch Day". Gamespot. Archived from the original on June 12, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
31. Barrett, Ben (May 17, 2016). "Overwatch comes out at 16:00 PDT, 00:00 BST – here's all the info". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on June 10, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
32. Dyer, Mitch (November 5, 2015). "BlizzCon 2015: Overwatch: Origins Edition Release Date Set for Spring 2016". IGN. Archived from the original on November 6, 2015. Retrieved November 6, 2015.
33. Campbell, Colin (November 6, 2015). "Overwatch won't be free-to-play, special editions coming in 2016". Polygon. Archived from the original on May 27, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
34. Gartenberg, Chaim (May 17, 2017). "Overwatch celebrates its one year anniversary with a new event and a Game of the Year edition". The Verge. Archived from the original on August 24, 2018. Retrieved May 17, 2017.
35. "Overwatch on consoles is smooth, but most will prefer PC". Destructoid. Archived from the original on May 12, 2016. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
36. Carter, Chris (June 6, 2016). "Blizzard muses on the possibility of Overwatch cross-play on consoles". Destructoid. Archived from the original on August 5, 2016. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
37. Saed, Sharif (September 4, 2019). "Nintendo announces Overwatch is officially coming to Switch". VG247. Archived from the original on September 4, 2019. Retrieved September 4, 2019.
38. Beckhelling, Imogen (September 4, 2019). "Nintendo has officially announced Overwatch is coming to Switch next month". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on September 4, 2019. Retrieved September 4, 2019.
39. Robinson, Andy (September 5, 2019). "Overwatch for Switch will run at 30fps, developed by Iron Galaxy". Video Games Chronicle. Archived from the original on September 5, 2019. Retrieved September 5, 2019.
40. Makuch, Eddie (October 1, 2019). "Overwatch Dev Talks Origins Of Switch Version, Technical Challenges, Cross-Play, And More". GameSpot. Archived from the original on October 2, 2019. Retrieved October 1, 2019.
41. McFerran, Damien (September 5, 2019). "Overwatch Coming To Nintendo Switch In October, Physical Version Is A Code In A Box". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on September 9, 2019. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
42. McKeand, Kirk (May 24, 2016). "Breaking the lore – How Overwatch weaves compelling stories into a multiplayer shooter". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Archived from the original on June 5, 2016. Retrieved June 15, 2016.
43. Gurwin, Gabe (June 4, 2016). "Why did Blizzard craft an engrossing story for Overwatch, then toss it away?". Digital Trends. Archived from the original on June 15, 2016. Retrieved June 15, 2016.
44. Goslin, Austen (August 1, 2018). "Overwatch writing team adds Nebula Award winner Alyssa Wong". Heroes Never Die. Archived from the original on August 1, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
45. Morrison, Angus (March 17, 2016). "Blizz details Overwatch comics and animated shorts". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on March 18, 2016. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
46. McWhertor, Michael (November 18, 2016). "Blizzard cancels Overwatch graphic novel". Polygon. Archived from the original on November 19, 2016. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
47. Devore, Jordan (May 10, 2016). "Hanzo, Genji, and Soldier: 76 are up next for Overwatch animated shorts". Destructoid. Archived from the original on May 18, 2016. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
48. Frank, Allegra (March 21, 2016). "Overwatch's first animated short is out now, introduces players to Winston". Polygon. Archived from the original on May 31, 2016. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
49. Mascarenhas, Hyacinth (April 4, 2016). "Watch Widowmaker and Tracer battle it out in Blizzard's second Overwatch animated short Alive". International Business Times. Archived from the original on May 13, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
50. Frank, Allegra (May 16, 2016). "Overwatch's third animated short focuses on Hanzo's past". Polygon. Archived from the original on June 14, 2016. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
51. Fahey, Mike (May 22, 2016). "Soldier: 76 Plays Hero In The Final Animated Overwatch Short Of The Season". Kotaku. Archived from the original on June 8, 2016. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
52. Carter, Chris (April 17, 2017). "Overwatch's Genji and Hanamura are coming to Heroes of the Storm". Destructoid. Archived from the original on April 17, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
53. Lumb, David (April 25, 2017). "'Heroes of the Storm' adds everyone's favorite 'Overwatch' hero". Engadget. Archived from the original on April 26, 2017. Retrieved April 25, 2017.
54. Marks, Tom (September 15, 2017). "Junkrat and Ana are Coming to Heroes of the Storm". IGN. Archived from the original on September 15, 2017. Retrieved September 15, 2017.
55. Tracer Spotlight - Heroes of the Storm, archived from the original on April 21, 2016, retrieved October 20, 2019
56. Heroes of the Storm Hanzo & Alexstrasza Cinematic – BlizzCon 2017, retrieved October 20, 2019
57. Schedeen, Jesse (July 20, 2016). "Comic-Con 2016: Dark Horse and Blizzard Partner for New Overwatch Comics". IGN. Archived from the original on July 21, 2016. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
58. Pereira, Chris (February 21, 2017). "Overwatch's New Funko Pop Figures Coming In April, See Them All Here". GameSpot. Archived from the original on February 23, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
59. Ma, Tianxiao (February 19, 2017). "Overwatch's Mei and Mercy will also become Nendoroids". Destructoid. Archived from the original on February 20, 2017. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
60. Good, Owen (May 16, 2018). "Nerf will bring Overwatch to life with foam-ball guns". Polygon. Archived from the original on May 21, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
61. Wodinsky, Shoshana (August 6, 2018). "Nerf is turning Overwatch guns into foam-shooting blasters". The Verge. Archived from the original on August 6, 2018. Retrieved August 6, 2018.
62. Orry, Tom (May 22, 2018). "Overwatch LEGO is Coming". USGamer. Archived from the original on May 22, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
63. Grubb, Jeff (October 2, 2018). "Overwatch, in block form! Blizzard partners with Lego". Venture Beat. Archived from the original on October 2, 2018. Retrieved October 2, 2018.
64. Santangelo, Nick (October 10, 2018). "LEGO Overwatch First Set Revealed, Available Now". IGN. Archived from the original on October 11, 2018. Retrieved October 10, 2018.
65. Good, Owen (February 16, 2019). "Overwatch gets nine swell action figures—including a huge Reinhardt—from Hasbro". Polygon. Archived from the original on February 16, 2019. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
66. Oh, Ashley (January 7, 2019). "Blizzard quietly confirms another LGBTQ Overwatch hero". Polygon. Archived from the original on October 8, 2019. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
67. Marshall, Cass (June 17, 2019). "New Overwatch short story stars Baptiste, teases new skin". Polygon. Archived from the original on July 30, 2019. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
68. O'Connor, James (November 12, 2019). "Overwatch Reveals Mercy's Past In Valkyrie, A New Short Story--Here Are The Lore Highlights". GameSpot. Archived from the original on November 13, 2019. Retrieved November 14, 2019.
69. Heller, Emily (June 20, 2019). "Upcoming official cookbook imagines Overwatch heroes' favorite meals". Polygon. Archived from the original on October 8, 2019. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
70. Marshall, Cass (July 8, 2019). "Overwatch fans are looking for lore in odd places — including cookbooks". Polygon. Archived from the original on July 22, 2019. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
71. Carpenter, Nicole (October 5, 2019). "Scholastic publishing Overwatch book starring Numbani hero Efi Oladele". Polygon. Archived from the original on October 8, 2019. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
72. Macgregor, Jody (October 5, 2019). "There's an Overwatch novel on the way". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on October 8, 2019. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
73. Crecente, Brian (February 28, 2018). "'Overwatch': Birth of a Professional Esports League". Glixel. Archived from the original on March 2, 2018. Retrieved March 2, 2018.
74. Lahti, Evan (April 13, 2015). "Blizzard's blueprint: Overwatch as a competitive FPS". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on May 29, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
75. Szymborski, Dan (April 28, 2016). "Why Overwatch is the next big esport". ESPN. Archived from the original on June 11, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
76. Francis, Bryant (May 12, 2016). "Overwatch's biggest contribution to esports' growth: speed". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on June 16, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
77. Dorresteijn, Stefan (May 23, 2016). "Does Overwatch have what it takes to succeed as an esport?". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on June 10, 2016. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
78. Saedler, Philipp (June 10, 2016). "ESL to host first international Overwatch® competition with a six-figure prize pool at gamescom 2016". ESL Gaming. Archived from the original on June 12, 2016. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
79. Chalk, Andy (June 10, 2016). "ESL announces first six-figure Overwatch tournament". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on June 13, 2016. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
80. Paget, Mat (July 22, 2016). "Overwatch Heads to TV for a New Tournament". GameSpot. Archived from the original on July 24, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
81. O'Conner, James (August 5, 2016). "The Overwatch World Cup will take place during Blizzcon". VG247. Archived from the original on August 6, 2016. Retrieved August 5, 2016.
82. Plummer, Quinten (June 29, 2016). "Overwatch' Now Most Popular Game In Korean Internet Cafes, Takes Spot From 'League Of Legends'". Tech Times. Archived from the original on March 9, 2018. Retrieved March 9, 2018.
83. Allen, Eric (January 6, 2018). "Overwatch APEX Tournament Series is Over". Kotaku. Archived from the original on March 9, 2018. Retrieved March 9, 2018.
84. McAloon, Alissa (October 31, 2018). "Blizzard launches standalone, souped-up Overwatch viewer for esports event". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on November 1, 2018. Retrieved October 31, 2018.
85. Molina, Brett (November 5, 2016). "Blizzard to launch pro sports league for 'Overwatch'". USA Today. Archived from the original on November 28, 2016. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
86. Kollar, Philip (November 4, 2016). "Overwatch League is Blizzard's ambitious new esports org, includes city-based teams". Polygon. Archived from the original on November 5, 2016. Retrieved November 4, 2016.
87. Bond, Paul (November 4, 2016). "Activision Blizzard to Create eSports League for 'Overwatch' Video Game". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on November 30, 2016. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
88. "Overwatch for Switch Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
89. "Overwatch for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
90. "Overwatch for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
91. "Overwatch for Xbox One Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
92. Carter, Chris (May 24, 2016). "Review: Overwatch". Destructoid. Archived from the original on May 24, 2016. Retrieved May 24, 2016.
93. Buchholtz, Matt (June 2, 2016). "Overwatch review". Electronic Gaming Monthly. Archived from the original on June 4, 2016. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
94. Tack, Daniel (May 24, 2016). "An Epic Evolution – Overwatch – PC". Game Informer. Archived from the original on May 26, 2016. Retrieved May 24, 2016.
95. Leack, Jonathan (May 25, 2016). "Overwatch Review". Game Revolution. Archived from the original on May 26, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
96. Mahardy, Mike (May 25, 2016). "Overwatch Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on May 28, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
97. Sullivan, Lucas (May 27, 2016). "Overwatch Review". GamesRadar. Archived from the original on May 22, 2016. Retrieved May 27, 2016.
98. Ingenito, Vince (May 24, 2016). "Overwatch Review". IGN. Archived from the original on May 25, 2016. Retrieved May 24, 2016.
99. Savage, Phil (May 28, 2016). "Overwatch review". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on May 29, 2016. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
100. Frushtick, Russ (May 27, 2016). "Overwatch review". Polygon. Archived from the original on May 27, 2016. Retrieved May 27, 2016.
101. Bell, Alice (May 27, 2016). "Overwatch Review". VideoGamer.com. Archived from the original on May 29, 2016. Retrieved May 27, 2016.
102. Meli, Jowi (May 24, 2016). "Overwatch Review – Heroes Never Die (PS4)". PlayStation LifeStyle. Archived from the original on May 25, 2016. Retrieved May 24, 2016.
103. Bogos, Steven (May 24, 2016). "Overwatch Review – Your Watch Has Begun". The Escapist. Archived from the original on June 2, 2016. Retrieved May 24, 2016.
104. Hern, Alex (May 27, 2016). "Overwatch review: Fast, fun and a joy throughout". The Guardian. Archived from the original on May 28, 2016. Retrieved May 27, 2016.
105. Leack, Jonathan (May 24, 2016). "Overwatch Is A Bigger Deal Than You Thought". Game Revolution. Archived from the original on May 27, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
106. Kerr, Chris (May 24, 2016). "Don't stop the presses: A glance at Overwatch's ballooning media coverage". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on May 25, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
107. Webster, Andrew (May 31, 2016). "Overwatch and the new wave of friendly online shooters". The Verge. Archived from the original on May 31, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
108. McCarthy, Caty (June 13, 2016). "Overwatch and the pleasure of transmedia narratives". Kill Screen. Archived from the original on August 10, 2016. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
109. Minotti, Mike (May 31, 2016). "Overwatch is the best team shooter ever made". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on June 9, 2016. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
110. Tack, Daniel (June 16, 2016). "Game Picks: Win or lose, 'Overwatch' stays fresh and fun". The News & Observer. Archived from the original on August 10, 2016. Retrieved June 17, 2016.
111. Johnson, Hugh (June 9, 2016). "Overwatch breathes life into stale genre (review)". The Denver Post. Archived from the original on June 15, 2016. Retrieved June 17, 2016.
112. Rivera, Joshua (June 28, 2016). "The Best Video Games of 2016 (So Far)". Vulture. Archived from the original on July 2, 2016. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
113. Bashore, Nicholas (June 9, 2016). "'Overwatch' Is Great, But Here's What They Must Fix". Inverse. Archived from the original on June 10, 2016. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
114. Grayson, Nathan (July 1, 2016). "Overwatch's Competitive Mode Is At Odds With The Rest Of The Game". Kotaku. Archived from the original on July 3, 2016. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
115. Grayson, Nathan (July 15, 2016). "How Blizzard Is Trying To Fix Overwatch's Toxicity Problem". Kotaku. Archived from the original on July 15, 2016. Retrieved July 15, 2016.
116. Nunneley, Stephany (June 2, 2016). "Overwatch has 7M players who've already logged over 119M hours". VG247. Archived from the original on June 4, 2016. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
117. Makuch, Eddie (June 14, 2016). "Overwatch Reaches 10 Million Players". GameSpot. Archived from the original on June 17, 2016. Retrieved June 14, 2016.
118. Valentine, Rebekah (November 1, 2019). "Overwatch 2 announced, will be cross-compatible with original game". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on November 1, 2019. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
119. Miller, Matt (June 9, 2016). "Uncharted 4 Leads Strong Month Of Software Sales In May NPD". Game Informer. Archived from the original on June 11, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
120. Brighton, James (July 21, 2016). "Overwatch tops US sales during June slump". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on July 22, 2016. Retrieved July 21, 2016.
121. Brightman, James (January 19, 2017). "Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Battlefield 1 lead 2016 US game sales – NPD". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on January 25, 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
122. Grubb, Jeff (June 9, 2016). "Overwatch was the fastest selling games of May, beating Doom and Uncharted 4". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on June 10, 2016. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
123. Nunneley, Stephany (June 23, 2016). "Overwatch earned $269M in digital revenues across PC and console – SuperData". VG247. Archived from the original on June 25, 2016. Retrieved June 23, 2016.
124. Saed, Sharif (December 22, 2016). "Overwatch brought in more money than any other paid PC game in 2016". VG247. Archived from the original on December 23, 2016. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
125. Wawro, Alex (May 4, 2017). "Activision Blizzard sees record Q1 earnings – 80% of which came from digital sales". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on April 7, 2019. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
126. Frank, Allegra (June 27, 2016). "Report: Overwatch overtakes League of Legends as Korean net cafes' most popular game". Polygon. Archived from the original on June 27, 2016. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
127. Holt, Kris. "'Overwatch' skin raised more than $10 million for breast cancer research". Engadget. Archived from the original on September 21, 2018. Retrieved July 18, 2019.
128. Ivan, Tom (July 23, 2019). "Overwatch in-game spending 'tops $1 billion'". Video Games Chronicle. Archived from the original on July 23, 2019. Retrieved July 23, 2019.
129. Totilo, Stephan (February 26, 2015). "How Anita Sarkeesian Wants Video Games To Change". Kotaku. Archived from the original on June 12, 2016. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
130. Grayson, Nathan. "With Overwatch, Blizzard Is Trying To Do Women Characters Better". Kotaku. Archived from the original on November 11, 2014. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
131. Parfitt, Ben (March 9, 2015). "Blizzard hopes new Overwatch character will help address female diversity criticisms". MCV. Archived from the original on June 10, 2016. Retrieved November 16, 2017.
132. Grayson, Nathan (March 30, 2016). "Blizzard Removing Overwatch Butt Pose After Fan Complaint [UPDATE]". Kotaku. Archived from the original on March 29, 2016. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
133. Good, Owen S. (April 6, 2016). "Here's Overwatch's replacement for the victory pose that caused such a fuss". Polygon. Archived from the original on May 24, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
134. Martin, Matt (April 6, 2016). "Overwatch's Tracer butt pose replaced with cheesecake pin-up stance". VG247. Archived from the original on April 6, 2016. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
135. Grayson, Nathan (July 18, 2016). "Overwatch's Director On Competitive Mode, Controversies, And The Future". Kotaku. Archived from the original on July 19, 2016. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
136. D'Anastasio, Cecilia (May 19, 2017). "Blizzard May Have Clarified Pharah's Controversial Background In Overwatch". Kotaku. Archived from the original on April 2, 2019. Retrieved May 19, 2017.
137. Fahey, Mike. "Hindu Leader Wants Blizzard To Drop Symmetra's Devi Skin From Overwatch". Kotaku. Archived from the original on August 13, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
138. Hafer, T.J. (June 27, 2012). "Hindu leader requests removal of deities from Smite, Hi-Rez declines". pcgamer. Archived from the original on December 6, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
139. Ashcraft, Brian. "Hindu Leader Says Controlling Goddess in Online Game Is "Denigration"". Kotaku. Archived from the original on December 6, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
140. D'antansio, Cecila (February 2, 2017). "Why Overwatch Hacking Is Such A Big Problem In Korea". Kotaku. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
141. Ashcroft, Brian (February 14, 2017). "How Blizzard Is Combating Korea's Overwatch Hacking Problem". Kotaku. Archived from the original on February 14, 2017. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
142. Frank, Allegra (February 3, 2017). "Blizzard doesn't want Overwatch console players using mouse-keyboard setups". Polygon. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved February 3, 2017.
143. Williams, Mike (February 7, 2017). "Overwatch's Fight Against Alternative Input and The Folks Caught in The Middle". US Gamer. Archived from the original on February 8, 2017. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
144. Brian, Matt (September 14, 2017). "'Overwatch' player toxicity is delaying game updates". Engadget. Archived from the original on December 15, 2017. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
145. Orland, Kyle (September 14, 2017). "Blizzard: Toxic Overwatch players are hurting the game's development". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on December 15, 2017. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
146. Castello, Jay (October 26, 2017). "Blizzard's failure to curb toxicity undermines Overwatch's inclusive message". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on December 15, 2017. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
147. Bailey, Dustin (November 15, 2017). "The Dutch Gaming Authority is investigating whether online loot boxes constitute gambling". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on November 16, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
148. Kent, Emma (September 17, 2018). "15 European gambling regulators unite to tackle loot box threat". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on September 17, 2018. Retrieved December 6, 2018.
149. Ziebart, Alex (June 6, 2017). "Overwatch China changes loot box purchases to dodge gambling laws | Blizzard Watch". Blizzard Watch. Archived from the original on February 5, 2019. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
150. Gartenberg, Chaim (May 2, 2017). "China's new law forces Dota, League of Legends, and other games to reveal odds of scoring good loot". The Verge. Archived from the original on December 4, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
151. "关于《守望先锋》补给抽取概率公告". ow.blizzard.cn. March 23, 2017. Archived from the original on December 6, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
152. Brown, Fraser (November 28, 2018). "The FTC agrees to investigate loot boxes". pcgamer. Archived from the original on December 3, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
153. Wallace, Chris (April 19, 2018). "Loot boxes and skin gambling to earn £35bn in revenue by 2022". MCV. Archived from the original on December 6, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
154. "Best of 2016 Awards Wiki Guide". IGN. Archived from the original on January 6, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
155. "The Best PC Games of 2016". GameSpot. Archived from the original on January 30, 2017. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
156. "The Best Xbox One Games of 2016". GameSpot. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
157. "The Best PS4 Games of 2016". GameSpot. Archived from the original on August 29, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
158. "Game of the Year 2016 Countdown: #1". GameSpot. Archived from the original on April 4, 2019. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
159. "Best Games of 2016". Game Revolution. December 27, 2016. Archived from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
160. "EGM's Best of 2016: Part Five: #05 ~ #01". EGMNow. Archived from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
161. "We've chosen our 2016 GOTY and it's #Overwatch. Congrats to Blizzard and all the Overwatch team". GamesTM. Facebook. December 15, 2016. Archived from the original on January 30, 2017. Retrieved January 22, 2017.
162. "The Escapist's 2016 Game of the Year". The Escapist. Archived from the original on January 5, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
163. Marchiafava, Jeff (January 4, 2017). "Game Informer Best of 2016 Awards (Page 5)". Game Informer. Archived from the original on March 15, 2018. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
164. "Eurogamer's game of the year 2016". December 31, 2016. Archived from the original on January 1, 2017. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
165. "Game of the Year picks blog: 2016 Game of the Year". Game of the Year picks blog. Archived from the original on March 6, 2017. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
166. "Giant Bomb's 2016 Game of the Year Awards: Day One". Giant Bomb. Archived from the original on January 30, 2017. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
167. "Giant Bomb's 2016 Game of the Year Awards: Day Four". Giant Bomb. Archived from the original on January 30, 2017. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
168. "Giant Bomb's 2016 Game of the Year Awards: Day Five". Giant Bomb. Archived from the original on April 4, 2019. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
169. "Polygon's 2016 Games of the Year #3: Overwatch". Polygon. January 5, 2017. Archived from the original on January 6, 2017. Retrieved January 6, 2017.
170. "The 25 Best Video Games of 2016". Slant Magazine. Archived from the original on December 22, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
171. "Game of the Year Awards 2016". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on January 7, 2017. Retrieved January 6, 2017.
172. "Welcome to The Escapist Awards 2016". The Escapist. Archived from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
173. Marchiafava, Jeff (January 4, 2017). "Game Informer Best of 2016 Awards (Page 2)". Game Informer. Archived from the original on March 15, 2018. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
174. Marchiafava, Jeff (January 4, 2017). "Game Informer Best of 2016 Awards (Page 4)". Game Informer. Archived from the original on March 16, 2018. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
175. "Best of 2017 Awards Wiki Guide – Best Spectator Game". IGN. December 20, 2017. Archived from the original on January 9, 2018. Retrieved January 9, 2018.
176. Bertz, Matt (January 6, 2018). "The 2017 Shooter Of The Year Awards". Game Informer. Archived from the original on January 7, 2018. Retrieved January 9, 2018.
177. Sheridan, Connor (November 18, 2016). "Overwatch scoops five awards, Firewatch wins Best Indie Game: Here are all the Golden Joystick 2016 winners". GamesRadar. Archived from the original on March 26, 2017.
178. Loveridge, Sam (September 15, 2016). "Golden Joystick Awards 2016 voting now open to the public". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on October 30, 2016. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
179. Makuch, Eddie (November 16, 2016). "All the 2016 Game Awards Nominees". GameSpot. Archived from the original on January 18, 2017. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
180. Stark, Chelsea (December 1, 2016). "The Game Awards: Here's the full winners list". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on December 2, 2016. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
181. "The 7th Annual Music in Media Awards Announces Winners in Film, TV, & Video Games" (PDF). Hollywood Music in Media Awards. November 18, 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 17, 2018. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
182. Makuch, Eddie; Imms, Jason (February 23, 2017). "Overwatch Wins DICE Game of the Year, Full Nominees List". GameSpot. Archived from the original on October 17, 2019. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
183. Makuch, Eddie (January 25, 2017). "All The 2017 SXSW Game Award Nominees". GameSpot. Archived from the original on April 16, 2017. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
184. Makuch, Eddie (March 19, 2017). "Uncharted 4 Wins Game Of The Year At SXSW Awards". GameSpot. Archived from the original on August 29, 2018. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
185. "Inside, Overwatch & Firewatch lead GDC 2017 Choice Awards nominees". Gamasutra. January 4, 2017. Archived from the original on January 5, 2017. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
186. Makuch, Eddie; Imms, Jason (March 1, 2017). "Watch The Game Developers Choice Awards Right Here Tonight". GameSpot. Archived from the original on March 1, 2017. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
187. wbber, Jordan Erica (March 9, 2017). "Bafta games awards 2017: Inside and Uncharted 4 lead the way". The Guardian. Archived from the original on March 9, 2017. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
188. "Uncharted 4 wins best game at Bafta awards". BBC. April 6, 2017. Archived from the original on April 6, 2017. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
189. "2017 Screen Music Awards". American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Archived from the original on August 26, 2017. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
190. Rubin, Rebecca; Knapp, JD (August 13, 2017). "Teen Choice Awards 2017: 'Riverdale,' Fifth Harmony Shut Out Competition". Variety. Archived from the original on August 16, 2017. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
191. Gaito, Eri (November 13, 2017). "Golden Joystick Awards 2017 Nominees". Best in Slot. Archived from the original on January 10, 2018. Retrieved January 9, 2018.
192. Weber, Rachel (November 17, 2017). "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild scores big at the 35th Golden Joystick Awards presented with OMEN by HP". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on November 17, 2017. Retrieved January 9, 2018.
193. Osborn, Alex (December 7, 2017). "All the News, Trailers, and Winners from The Game Awards 2017". IGN. Archived from the original on December 8, 2017. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
194. "British Academy Games Awards Nominations in 2018: Evolving Game - Overwatch". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. April 12, 2018. Archived from the original on April 13, 2018. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
195. "2018 Winners". The Webby Awards. April 24, 2018. Archived from the original on June 25, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
196. Cohen, Jess (June 22, 2018). "Teen Choice Awards 2018: Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther and Riverdale Among Top Nominees". E!. Archived from the original on June 13, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
197. Ramos, Dino-Ray (August 12, 2018). "Teen Choice Awards: 'Riverdale', 'Infinity War', 'Black Panther' Among Top Honorees – Full Winners List". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 13, 2018. Retrieved August 13, 2018.
198. Hoggins, Tom (September 24, 2018). "Golden Joysticks 2018 nominees announced, voting open now". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on October 8, 2018. Retrieved October 7, 2018.
199. Sheridan, Connor (November 16, 2018). "Golden Joystick Awards 2018 winners: God of War wins big but Fortnite gets Victory Royale". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
200. McWhertor, Michael (November 13, 2018). "The Game Awards 2018 nominees led by God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2". Polygon. Archived from the original on November 18, 2018. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
201. Grant, Christopher (December 6, 2018). "The Game Awards 2018: Here are all the winners". Polygon. Archived from the original on November 18, 2018. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
202. Glyer, Mike (November 19, 2018). "2018 Gamers' Choice Awards Nominees". File 770. Archived from the original on January 12, 2019. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
203. Trent, Logan (February 11, 2019). "Here Are Your 2019 SXSW Gaming Awards Finalists!". South by Southwest. Archived from the original on February 15, 2019. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
204. "BAFTA Games Awards nominations 2019". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. March 14, 2019. Archived from the original on October 29, 2019. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
205. Liao, Shannon (April 23, 2019). "Here are all the winners of the 2019 Webby Awards". The Verge. Archived from the original on April 23, 2019. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
206. Tailby, Stephen (September 20, 2019). "Days Gone Rides Off with Three Nominations in This Year's Golden Joystick Awards". Push Square. Archived from the original on September 20, 2019. Retrieved September 21, 2019.
207. Winslow, Jeremy (November 19, 2019). "The Game Awards 2019 Nominees Full List". GameSpot. Archived from the original on November 23, 2019. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
208. Valentin, Rebekah (January 8, 2020). "GLAAD reveals nominees for Outstanding Video Game at 31st annual Media Awards". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on January 29, 2020. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
209. Usher, William (May 25, 2016). "Blizzard Got The Best Response When They Did Something Heartwarming For An Overwatch Fan With Cerebral Palsy". Cinema Blend. Archived from the original on June 9, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
210. Phillips, Tom (May 25, 2016). "Overwatch fan with cerebral palsy thanks Blizzard for custom controls". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on May 28, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
211. Skrebels, Joe (May 23, 2016). "Blizzard Artist Turns Child's Overwatch Fan Art Into Concept Art". IGN. Archived from the original on June 20, 2016. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
212. Grayson, Nathan (July 1, 2016). "Overwatch Honors Fan Who Passed Away One Day Before The Game Came Out". Kotaku. Archived from the original on July 1, 2016. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
213. "Overwatch animated porn is being taken offline by video game maker Blizzard". BBC. May 31, 2016. Archived from the original on June 1, 2016. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
214. Chalk, Andy (January 5, 2016). "Blizzard releases crazily detailed Overwatch art and cosplay guide". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on June 21, 2016. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
215. Sheridan, Connor (May 26, 2016). "Overwatch fan art shows heroes in their Ultimate glory". GamesRadar. Archived from the original on June 29, 2016. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
216. Ashcraft, Brian (May 27, 2016). "Let Overwatch's Japanese Fan Art Begin!". Kotaku. Archived from the original on June 18, 2016. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
217. Plunkett, Luke (May 25, 2016). "The Best Overwatch Cosplay". Kotaku. Archived from the original on June 17, 2016. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
218. Jusino, Teresa (April 14, 2016). "Check Out This On-Point Cosplay of Overwatch's Tracer". The Mary Sue. Archived from the original on June 20, 2016. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
219. Usher, William (June 12, 2016). "This Is What Overwatch Would Look Like As Anime". Cinema Blend. Archived from the original on June 15, 2016. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
220. Minotti, Mike (May 25, 2016). "Overwatch is so anime". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on June 16, 2016. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
221. Hernandez, Patricia (June 6, 2016). "Overwatch Fans Have Turned DVA Into A Dorito-Eating Gremlin". Kotaku. Archived from the original on June 19, 2016. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
222. Grayson, Nathan (November 9, 2016). "Blizzard On Overwatch's Sombra, Roadhog's Hook, And Gay Characters". Kotaku. Archived from the original on November 18, 2016. Retrieved November 17, 2016.
223. Winkie, Luke (May 24, 2017). "'Overwatch' Director Jeff Kaplan is Famous and It Freaks Him Out". Glixel. Archived from the original on July 3, 2017. Retrieved May 24, 2017.
224. Grubb, Jeff (May 7, 2016). "'Overwatch' Pornhub searches jumped 817% during the shooter's open beta". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on June 16, 2016. Retrieved June 15, 2016.
225. Grayson, Nathan (May 23, 2016). "Inside The Surprisingly Big Overwatch Porn Scene". Kotaku. Archived from the original on June 13, 2016. Retrieved June 15, 2016.
226. Domanico, Michael (November 1, 2019). "Blizzard Announces Overwatch 2 at BlizzCon". IGN. Archived from the original on November 1, 2019. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
227. Walker, Alex (November 5, 2019). "Convincing Blizzard To Merge Overwatch 1 And 2 Was 'Very Challenging'". Kotaku. Archived from the original on November 4, 2019. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
228. Chalk, Andy (November 1, 2019). "Overwatch 2 announced: New heroes, co-op story missions, and more". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on November 1, 2019. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
229. Reiner, Andrew (November 5, 2019). "Details On An Unannounced Overwatch 2 Hero". Game Informer. Archived from the original on November 5, 2019. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
230. Park, Morgan (November 4, 2019). "Overwatch 2: Everything we know about the unconventional sequel". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on November 5, 2019. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
231. Chalk, Andy (November 1, 2019). "'I have no idea' when Overwatch 2 will be out, Jeff Kaplan says". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on November 2, 2019. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
232. Ramee, Jordan (November 1, 2019). "Overwatch 2 Is Coming To Nintendo Switch". GameSpot. Archived from the original on November 2, 2019. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
233. Grayson, Nathan (November 7, 2019). "Overwatch Stagnated Because of Its Sequel, Says Director". Kotaku. Archived from the original on November 7, 2019. Retrieved November 7, 2019.

External links

• Official website