‘World of Warcraft’ Makers Unveil New Online Game, ‘Overwatch’
It’s been well over a decade since World of Warcraft maker Blizzard Entertainment last introduced players to a brand-new fantasy world.
That drought ended Friday during the opening ceremonies of the annual BlizzCon expo, when the company pulled back the wraps on Overwatch. No release date was announced beyond a beta test in 2015 (sign-ups start here).
Overwatch is a team-based multiplayer shooter in the vein of Team Fortress 2.
“With every new Blizzard game, we look at our favorite aspects of a genre and put our own spin on things,” Blizzard bigwig Mike Morhaime said in an announcement. “Our goal with Overwatch is to create an awesome FPS [first-person shooter] experience that’s more accessible to a much wider audience while delivering the action and depth that shooter fans love.”
The cast of characters currently stands at a dozen, and it certainly runs the gamut. Humans, robots, aliens, and one particularly charismatic talking gorilla were shown off, though that list may well grow before the game launches. Players will fight in teams of six across a variety of fantasy-themed maps.
Check out Overwatch in action in the game’s first official gameplay trailer:
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