Overwatch (video game)

Overwatch
File:Overwatch cover art (PC).jpg Cover for the game's Origins Edition, featuring the hero character Tracer
Developer(s)	Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Blizzard Entertainment
Director(s)	Jeffrey 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
Composer(s)	Derek Duke Neal Acree Jaroslav Beck Sam Cardon Chris Velasco
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows PlayStation 4 Xbox One
Release	WW: May 24, 2016
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Overwatch is a team-based online multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It was released in May 2016 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Overwatch assigns players into two teams of six, with each player selecting one of 24 pre-defined characters, called heroes, each with unique movement, attributes, and abilities, whose roles are divided into four categories: Offense, Defense, Tank, and Support. 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 casual play, with a competitive ranked mode, various 'arcade' game modes, and a player-customizable server browser subsequently included following its release. Additionally, Blizzard has developed and added new characters, maps, and game modes post-release, while stating that all Overwatch updates will remain free, with the only additional cost to players being microtransactions to earn additional cosmetic rewards.

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 growing popularity of multiplayer online battle arenas, 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 was 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 BlizzCon 2014 in a fully playable state and was in a closed beta from late 2015 through early 2016. An open beta in May 2016 drew in more than 9.7 million players. The release of the game was promoted with short animated videos to introduce the game's narrative and each of the characters. Upon official release, 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. Considered one of the best games released in 2016, the game received numerous accolades, including being awarded Game of the Year at The Game Awards, D.I.C.E. Awards, and Game Developers Choice Awards, as well as from numerous publications. Since its release, Overwatch has become recognized as an eSport, where in addition to sponsoring tournaments, Blizzard has announced plans to help support professional league play starting in 2017.

Overwatch is a first-person shooter that features squad-based combat with two opposing teams of six players each.^[1] Players choose one of several hero characters, each with their own unique abilities and role classes. The four character roles include: offense characters with high speed and attack but low defense, defense characters meant to form choke points for enemies, support characters that provide buffs and debuffs for their allies and enemies respectively (such as healing or speed alterations), and tank characters that have a large amount of armor and hit points to withstand enemy attacks and draw fire away from teammates. During the pre-match setup, players on a team will be given advice from the game if their team is unbalanced, such as if they are lacking defensive heroes, encouraging players to switch to other heroes pre-match and balance the starting team.^[2] Within a match, players can switch between characters in-game following deaths or by returning to their home base. The game is designed to encourage players to adapt to the opposing team during a match by switching to characters that better "counter" their abilities.^[3][4]

Each hero has a primary attack or skill and at least two additional skills that can be invoked at any time, some requiring a brief cooldown period before they can be used again. Furthermore, each player slowly builds up a meter towards their character's "ultimate" skill; this meter builds up over time but can build up faster for defeating opponents or performing other beneficial tasks for their team such as healing other team members. Once ready, the player can use this skill at any time which may last for a few seconds (such as increased attack strength or immunity to attacks) or be a single powerful action (such as resurrecting any recently-fallen team members), after which they then must wait for the meter to fill up again. Opposing players will be alerted to the use of this ultimate ability by an exclamation from the character, often in the character's native language; for example, gunslinger McCree will call out "It's high noon" as the player engages the ultimate ability to target multiple visible enemies and deal lethal damage to those still in sight. This gives opposing players a brief moment to try to take cover or respond appropriately.^[5]

A second meter tracks how many in-round points a player has scored over time, which are rewarded for killing or assisting in killing, providing team defense or healing, and scoring objective points. When a certain threshold is reached, the player character's icon will be "on fire," representing that that character is a threat, but otherwise does not directly affect gameplay.^[6] This meter will slowly drop if the player does not continue to score points.

Overwatch employs an automated instant replay system, designed to highlight important moments of the game. After the game's end, the server selects a fragment of the match which had a large impact on the game's progression, such as a rapid succession of kills or an effective use of team healing, and then broadcasts it to all players from the point of view of the player responsible for it. This is called a "Play of the Game" (often abbreviated to "PotG"),^[7] or "Play of the Match" ("PotM") in competitive games that have longer matches. Afterwards, a result screen is shown, highlighting up to four individual players from both teams for their achievements during the match (such as damage dealt, healed or shielded, or time spent on the objective), and all players are given the option to commend one of them.

Players gain experience following a match towards a metagame experience level based on several factors such as whether they won or lost, how effectively they used their character's main powers, being awarded gold, silver, or bronze medals for their team across six categories such as most time spent on the objectives, and beating past personal records in these categories; initially, this experience could only gained when playing on the game's matchmaking modes and not in custom games, but with the custom server browser update in February 2017 enabled experience gains for custom games. On gaining an experience level, the player can earn a loot box, each which contains four random cosmetic items for individual heroes, including victory poses, paint sprays, alternate skins (costumes), emotes and voice lines. Such items are given out based on their rarity level, which range from Common through Legendary. They may also earn in-game currency called "credits" which can be used to purchase specific cosmetic items directly, with their cost based on the item's rarity. Items associated with limited-time events cannot be purchased in this manner.^[8] Other items can only be acquired by completing in-game achievements. Duplicate items are rewarded with in-game currency. Players also have the option to buy loot boxes with real-world money through microtransactions.

Characters in Overwatch come in four varieties: Offense, Defense, Tank, and Support. These roles serve to categorize the heroes by similar characteristics that can be used to describe them and their play style. The first appearance of an Overwatch character in a released game was on April 19, 2016, in Heroes of the Storm.^[9]

• Offense: Offense characters have high mobility and are known for their ability to deal large amounts of damage. To balance this, offense characters have a low number of hit points.^[10][11][12]
• Defense: Defense characters excel at protecting specific locations and creating choke points. Some of them can also provide several means of field support, such as sentry turrets and traps.^[10][11][12]
• Tank: Tank characters have the most hit points out of all the characters in the game. Because of this, they are able to draw enemy fire away from their teammates to themselves, so as to disrupt the enemy team. Tank heroes also have various ways to protect themselves and their team with shield-like abilities.^[10][11][12]
• Support: Support characters are utility characters that have abilities that enhance their own team or weaken the enemy team. They do not deal the a lot of damage, nor do they have many hit points, but the buffs and debuffs which they provide ensure that their teammates who do will make short work of their opponents.^[10][11][12]

In standard casual and competitive play, and in some of the special Arcade modes, maps are randomly selected for that match. Each Overwatch map has a specific game mode that it supports, which include:^[13]

• Assault: The attacking team is tasked with capturing two target points in sequence on the map, while the defending team must stop them.^[3][4]
• Escort: The attacking team is tasked with escorting a payload to a certain delivery point before time runs out, while the defending team must stop them. The payload vehicle moves along a fixed track when any player on the attacking team is close to it, but will stop if a defending player is nearby; should no attacker be near the vehicle, it will start to move backwards along the track. Passing specific checkpoints will extend the match time and prevent the payload from moving backwards from that point.^[3][4]
• Hybrid (Assault/Escort): The attacking team has to capture the payload (as if it were a target point from Assault) and escort it to its destination, while the defending team tries to hold them back.
• Control: Each team tries to capture and maintain a common control point until their capture percentage reaches 100%. This game mode is played in a best-of-three format. Control maps are laid out in a symmetric fashion so no team has an intrinsic position advantage.

Each mode includes an "Overtime" period if an objective is not yet completed by the attacking team, while requiring that the attacking team is actively advancing the objective. For example, if the attackers have not moved the payload to the next checkpoint in Escort, or have failed to take the control point held by the other team in Control, then they will receive additional time if they are still near the payload or control point. Overtime continues if attackers continuously push at their objective. If the attackers are cleared from the control objective or point, the attackers have a limited amount of time shown by a countdown meter to re-establish their attack before they lose the round; the length of this countdown meter shortens the farther into the Overtime period.

A mid-November 2016 update included a new map, "Ecopoint: Antarctica", which is not part of the normal map selection, but instead designed for special small-team Elimination modes within the Arcade, including a three-on-three and a one-on-one mode. In these modes, if a player-character is killed, they do not respawn until the next round, with each round ending once all members on a team have been killed or a time limit reached. Rounds are played until a certain point score by one team is reached.^[14]

With the addition of the server browser and custom server options in the February 2017, many of the Control maps can also be set to be played in casual game modes as Capture the Flag. Both teams have a flag they must defend from the opposing team. To pickup the opponent's flag, the player must keep their character close to the flag and not take damage for a few moments. Once they have the flag, they must race back to their home base to earn the capture point. If the character is killed, the flag is dropped and either the capturing team must follow similar rules to pick it up, or if the owning team stays near the flag, it is automatically returned. A team can capture the opposing flag even if their flag has been taken. The match is over after one team obtains 3 captures or 5 minutes has expired, whichever comes first.^[15]

The custom server options enable players to create additional game modes not readily classified under the existing modes; for example, players can create 6 versus 1 settings, where one team must try to defeat a single player who is significantly overpowered compared to standard characters.

Most of the game's maps are inspired by real-world locations;^[16] the first four maps, "King's Row", "Hanamura", "Temple of Anubis", and "Ilios" are inspired by London, Japan, the ruins of Ancient Egypt, and Greece respectively.^[4]

Overwatch features several means of gameplay, including tutorials and practice modes against computer-controlled opponents, casual matchmaking, weekly brawls, custom games, and competitive play.^[17]

Casual matchmaking allows players, alone, or in a party with invited friends, to be randomly matched against others. The game servers will attempt to match the gathered players in party via a dynamic queue with others based on general skill level, only broadening outside this search range if it takes a long time to find matching players.^[18] Blizzard works to adjust this matchmaking approach to making sure players will find matches of people with roughly equivalent skill level. For example, in June 2016, Blizzard removed the option for players to avoid specific opponents; the option was meant for players to be able ignore trolls, but instead found that highly skilled players were being put on these avoidance lists and were having difficulty finding games or would be matched with new and less-skilled players.^[19]

Overwatch was launched with a rotating Weekly Brawl mode, inspired by Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft's Tavern Brawls.^[20] These matches featured unique rules, such as players forced to play a specific hero or a specific class of hero, or may force a random hero on the player each time they respawn; as the mode's name suggests, these Brawls will change weekly.^[20] The Weekly Brawl was merged into an Arcade mode, featuring a rotating variety of games based on one-on-one and three-on-three matches and from which players can earn unique in-game items or loot boxes; the Arcade mode was added on November 15, 2016.^[21][22][23] The Weekly Brawl and Arcade mode may feature themed events designed by Blizzard, such as a three-on-three soccer-type game during the 2016 Summer Olympics,^[24] a co-operative player-versus-environment defense mode during the game's first Halloween event,^[25] and a Capture the Flag mode as part of the 2017 Chinese New Year event.^[15]

Custom games enable players to have open or private games with several possible options that can be adjusted, such as match length, which maps to play, limitations on character selection, and similar options that are used to create the Weekly Brawl or Arcade matches. When custom games were first launched, players did not gain any experience from playing in custom games as they would in the causal, ranked, or weekly brawl modes.^[26] A February 2017 update allows experience to be earned from custom games. This same patch also added several more customization features, including support for the Capture the Flag mode, and provided a server browser that can filter on the various feature sets.^[27][28] Some alterations of custom server modes have been made since the February 2017 update to prevent players from farming for experience points while they are idle on custom servers while Blizzard plans to ban users that attempt to farm experience via idling.^[29]

Competitive mode enables players, segregated in both region and platform, to participate in ranked play.^[30] Competitive mode is run in seasons that last for three months each with a short break (on the order of a week to two weeks) between each season to allow Blizzard to make necessary changes to this format; an exception was made for the first season which ran for 1.5 months to align timing for future seasons as to fall on calendar seasons.^[30][31] Players must have reached level 25 from casual matches to partake in competitive play. Before they can play any ranked matches for that season, they must play through ten preliminary matches which assigns a skill rating, which is partially influenced by the player's previous skill ranking on the last season. This ranking is subsequently used for matchmaking purposes in future competitive games they play that season. The player's skill level can move up or down during a season, influenced by their performance and by winning matches against higher-ranked players or losing matches to lower-ranked ones.^[18][32] Specific aspects of the skill system over the seasons are described below.

• In Season 1, skill rankings were assigned on a scale of 1 to 100, the latter representing the best players. Players were rewarded at the end of the season with in-game currency based on this ranking. Blizzard found that players were focusing on this number too closely during the season, prompting changes for Season 2.^[33]
• In Season 2, skill rankings were assigned on a scale of 1 to 5000; a player was then subsequently assigned one of seven tiers tied to the skill ranking: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond, Master, and Grandmaster. A player could enter a new tier by increasing their skill ranking. For all tiers up through Diamond, the player could never lose that tier ranking even if their skill dropped below the tier's threshold. Master and Grandmaster tiers required the player to continue to play; losing too many matches or not playing over a period of time could cause the player to fall out of that tier. End of season rewards were based on these tier rankings.^[34] Blizzard found that the method of bringing forward Season 1 skill rankings to Season 2 caused too many players of lower skill rank to be filtered into the Gold and Platinum tiers. This caused a wide distribution of player skills within these rank tiers and also caused players that started in Gold or Platinum tiers to have their skill rank drop significantly despite having even win-loss records.^[35]
• In Season 3, Blizzard used a skill ranking calculation at the onset of the season that decreased the player's Season 2 skill ranking to better sort players into the initial tiers, keep relative player skill in each tier consistent at the start of the season, and prevent rapid drops of a player's skill at the season's onset; they had found that their algorithms placed too many players in the Gold and Platinum tiers at the start of Season 2, creating imbalanced matchmaking and rapid declines of player rankings, and anticipate that this chance will better spread out players over tiers and improve matchmaking.^[35][36]
• In Season 4, the basic format from Season 3 was used with small updates to the tiering system. For example, Season 4 increased the number of games that those in the highest tiers need to play per week to maintain their position in those ranks, while hiding any low-end skill ranking less than 500 to avoid incentivizing people from trying to purposely gain a 0 skill ranking.^[37]

Players on a team in competitive mode must each choose a unique Hero to use, and can swap only to a different unused Hero mid-match; this aspect was added a few weeks after the launch of competitive mode.^[38] Competitive matches taking place on Control maps are played in three-out-of-five rounds rather than two-out-of-three as in casual gameplay. Competitive matches taking place on Assault, Escort, and Hybrid map types are broken into two rounds, with teams swapped between attackers and defenders each round. Teams can score a point only as the attackers, by completing each objective (capturing a control point or escorting the payload past a checkpoint). For Escort and Hybrid maps, if the attackers do not escort the payload to the final endpoint, the farthest distance they obtained is used for scoring. After these two rounds, the team with the highest score wins. In some situations, ties are broken with additional rounds, or the match could end in a draw. The draw-breaking mechanism has changed during the seasons:^{[30][34][39][40]}

• In Season 1, tied matches were resolved by a sudden death round; one team was randomly selected as the attackers and given about two minutes (time varying by map) without any overtime to secure a control point to win the match; otherwise, the defenders won. Blizzard had quickly recognized this method of resolving ties was not popular.
• In Seasons 2 and 3, tied matches are resolved based on how much time each team had left after their round as attackers. If the teams are tied and neither has any time left, the match is considered a draw. Otherwise, each team alternates as attackers while they still have cumulative time left to try to score as many points as possible until either both teams exhaust their time (ending in a draw) or one team scores more points than the other. Completing objectives does not reward the attackers any additional time in this mode, and there is less leeway allowed for overtime situations.
• In an update during Season 4, to reduce the frequency of draws, the game used how close teams came to capturing their current objective, similar to the distance an Escort objective is taken into account in determining victory.^[41] Later, this was tweaked to require that teams at least achieve one third of the point capture before this metric would be used to break ties; any capture less than one third was not considered in tie-breaking resolution.^[42]

Each match a player wins in competitive mode earns them some units of in-game "competitive currency": 10 for a win, and 3 for a tie.^[43]

Players who complete the prerequisite ten placement matches will gain cosmetic items unique for that season. At the end of a season, players will be rewarded with additional competitive currency based on their final skill ranking; for the first season, these varied between 10 and 300 competitive currency units, while season two increased those rewards by a factor of ten.^[44] This currency can then be used to purchase cosmetic rewards such as spending 300 (Season 1) or 3000 (Season 2 onward) competitive currency units to obtain a "golden" weapon for a specific character.^{[18][32][43][45][46]} Kaplan remarked that competitive play was Blizzard's "big focus", anticipating that it will "require a few season's worth of iteration before we're in the place we want to be."^[47] During the first season of competitive play, Blizzard announced that a team's probability of winning would no longer be recalculated after a player leaves the match; this decision was made after player feedback revealed a negative reception to the mechanic.^[48]

The backstory to Overwatch is described through animated shorts and other information distributed by Blizzard in promoting the game.^[49][50][51]

Overwatch is set sixty years into the future of a fictionalized Earth, thirty years after the resolution of the "Omnic Crisis". Prior 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 produced worldwide in automated "omnium" facilities and put to use to achieve economic equality. The Omnic Crisis began when the omniums started producing a series of lethal, hostile robots, which turned against humankind. The United Nations quickly formed Overwatch, an international task force to combat the omnic threat and restore order.

Two veteran soldiers were put in charge of Overwatch; Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison. Though Overwatch successfully quelled the robotic uprising and brought a number of talented individuals to the forefront, a rift developed between Reyes and Morrison, and Morrison became the leader of Overwatch while Reyes took charge of Blackwatch, Overwatch's covert operations division. Overwatch maintained peace across the world for several decades in what was called the "Overwatch Generation," 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.

Overwatch is set some 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. Former members of Overwatch decide to reform Overwatch despite the Petras Act, recruiting old friends and gaining new allies in their fight.^[52]

Development of Overwatch followed after the cancellation of the ambitious massively multiplayer online role-playing game Titan, a game that had been in development at Blizzard for seven years since around 2007.^[53][54] Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan said that Titan was a class-based shooter game, with each class having a core set of abilities that the player would expand upon via a skill tree progression; these skills got more powerful the farther the player progressed, and Kaplan said that it ended up being "very cluttered and confused".^[54] Blizzard co-founder Michael Morhaime stated that with Titan, "We didn't find the fun. We didn't find the passion." even after re-evaluating the project.^[55] Titan had been canceled internally by May 2013, though this wasn't publicly reported until 2014. The large Titan team of 140 members was broken up: 80 were permanently relocated to other divisions in Blizzard, twenty put on loan to other Blizzard projects, and the remaining 40 tasked to come up with a new project within six weeks, otherwise they would be assigned to other groups within Blizzard.^[56][54]

Creative director Chris Metzen noted that to avoid the same failure that Titan became, their group had to rethink how Blizzard's more successful games had come about, ignoring the scale and business opportunity of the end result and instead understand what tools and skills they had already to build from.^[57] In brainstorming ideas, the team thought about the current state of first-person shooters (FPS), a genre that many on the team had played throughout their careers, which has enjoyed many groundbreaking titles but still has a potential for innovation, according to Kaplan.^[58] Kaplan stated that some of the ideas in the current FPS they wanted to emulate were the use of in-game maneuvers like rocket jumping and grappling hooks that helped players move with fluidity across maps and team-based shooters such as Team Fortress Classic and Team Fortress 2.^[58] At the same time, multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games were starting to take off, which required players to cooperate with others to successfully win the match. Kaplan said that their team considered how to adapt the large-scale and fast-paced gameplay of Team Fortress 2 with the smaller scale and cooperative nature of MOBAs, forming the basis of Overwatch.^[58] Metzen also commented that the concept of teamwork in Overwatch was partially influenced by their own team's current morale following the cancellation of Titan. Metzen said that during Titan's development, the team was highly fractured which impacted the project's cancellation. On starting Overwatch with a smaller group, they all wanted to come together and support each other to make their next game a success, "a redemption story for us as people and as craftsmen".^[57] Morhaime described Overwatch's intention as to "create an awesome [first-person shooter] experience that's more accessible to a much wider audience while delivering the action and depth that shooter fans love."^[16] On the FPS nature of the game, Kaplan commented that "the real focus of the shooting in the game is not to chase realism. We don't have real world guns in the game. You're not playing a soldier in a present-day military conflict."^[17] Simplicity of design was a high-value goal, taking cues from the success of the simple approach used in Blizzard's Hearthstone.^[59]

From a narrative and artistic standpoint, Overwatch' approach came out of emotional impact of the failed Titan development. Kaplan said his small team was "very nervous about our future" when tasked to come up with a new game concept, but this soon solidified into the idea of "a future worth fighting for", which had also been a phrase used internally for Titan's development.^[56] This gave them the idea to set the game in an near-future, and started evaluating other games set in the same period, including recent Call of Duty and Battlefield games as well as The Last of Us and Fallout 4, but found all these titles presented a dark version of the future. Further, they were aware that of the various expansions for World of Warcraft, The Burning Crusade had one of the poorest receptions which they attributed to the oppressive visuals.^[56] Instead of these darker futures, they wanted to present a narrative and world that was more optimistic with brighter visuals that would help draw in players.^[56]

With core ideas down, the remaining Titan team began putting these together as a prototype to present to management. They took the classes they had made for Titan and remade these as Heroes, giving them core abilities from the Titan skill set they they believed worked best together, and developing backstory and personality for the heroes. Existing art assets from Titan for the various player avatars were also reused and refined to create the appearance of the heroes.^[54] The initial gameplay used maps they had developed for Titan along with Tracer, one of the reworked Titan heroes; at that point, they had not included any animations so Tracer would fire by shooting lasers out of her eyes.^[54] The prototype proved successful within Blizzard, and the team was given the greenlight to proceed. Overwatch became Blizzard's second attempt at launching a new franchise since StarCraft in 1998.^[60][57]

Initial development of the game began with creating the first Hero character, Tracer, who was based on a character from Titan with similar time-manipulation abilities.^[61] They used Tracer and a single map based on the Temple of Anubis, to test how well the core mechanics played, according to assistant game director Aaron Keller.^[62] They added three more Heroes—Widowmaker, Reaper, and Pharah—to start polishing the gameplay mechanics, which even at this stage Keller stated that it compared very closely with what the released game would present. They had even considered releasing Overwatch with a limited set of heroes at this point, as they had felt the game already had a finished feel to it.^[62]

Instead, they spent about two years on developing out the rest of the characters, gameplay balance, and graphics.^[62] Characters were generally added to the game for one of three reasons: to introduce a new gameplay mechanic or balance gameplay, to incorporate a new character design created by their artistic team, or to help support Overwatch's narrative.^[63] In addition to character balance, the development team needed to find ways to balance the characters with the various maps, wanting to provide areas across the maps for each character to have an area where they could be effective.^[64] The number of characters in the game was not fixed; though released with 21 different heroes, Kaplan stated the team played around with various goals, potentially as high as 40 unique heroes and across six different classes.^[58] Kaplan knew they had to have more than nine heroes as to separate themselves from Team Fortress 2, which featured nine distinct classes.^[54] Kaplan credits Jeff Goodman, a veteran designer in Blizzard, for figuring out the right number of heroes, classes, and balance between the characters.^[58] Keller noted that as the cast starting approaching about 15 characters, the team started to worry that there were too many for players to learn and may dilute the experience, but they strived to assure both uniqueness and balance across the slate of Heroes.^[62] The team felt the game was ready for release in November 2015 after adding the last two characters, Mei and D.Va, to the roster.^[62]

Overwatch was developed with half a dozen features to bring in a wider audience, including an accessibility feature for color blind individuals.^[53] During development, one important goal was to have "combat clarity" for the player, so that when a player moved into a new area, enemy characters would be clearly visible. This was enabled by contrasting the hues and saturation levels used for players to those used within the maps, and creating characters with distinctly different silhouettes to allow a player to identify the hero from a distance, including whether they were friend or foe.^[62] They found during development that having players be able to change heroes in mid-match to be important to gameplay. This inspired them to forego plans to release Overwatch as a free-to-play model with microtransactions or with paid downloadable content but instead make it a single-purchase title. Keller said that they wanted players to be able to jump to any Hero as necessitated by the situation, and the free-to-play or downloadable content approach could limit that ability if none of the team's players had purchased access to that hero.^[62] Keller also stated that the free-to-play/downloadable content model could fragment their player community, with gamers only playing with friends that had the same content instead of all available players.^[62] The game's engine was developed from scratch within Blizzard as to target a wide range of personal computers, including laptops that use integrated graphics processors. Senior software engineer Ryan Greene said that they looked to create a hardware "minspec" that would assure the game ran at nearly 30 frames-per-second on these lower-end machines, which once met would allow higher end machines as well as the consoles to run at 60 frames-per-second, as well as optimizing other performance-related issues.^[65]

A further goal in development was to avoid the negativity that often occurs in other competitive game environments, and, along with strides to make the narrative give a positive message, made specific choices in gameplay design to remove elements they felt fed negativity. One such choice was omitting kill/death ratios from the various statistic summaries, as according to Kaplan "some characters don’t need to kill to be effective".^[53] To promote a friendlier playing environment, Blizzard penalizes players that "rage quit" (purposely leaving a match before it is complete) with a penalty on player experience points after a match,^[66] and will permanently ban players that they find "cheating or using hacks, bots, or third-party software".^[67]

While the game's primary gameplay modes were easily developed to account for unique abilities of all characters, the developers also had thought about a Capture the Flag mode for several years, recognizing that most team-based first-person shooters included some type of variant on this mode.^[15] The largest issue that this mode faced was the speed or warping abilities of some of the characters, like Tracer, which could pick up the flag and warp back to their base, leaving the other team unable to stop them. Thus they would either find matches reduced to players selecting the speediest characters, or having to put so many restrictions in place that the result game no longer felt like Overwatch.^[15] Over several iterations, they devised a scheme that they put to public testing in January 2017 through the "Capture the Rooster" special event to celebrate the Chinese New Year; here, to prevent speedy characters from running immediately after collecting the flag, they must wait a few seconds before they can run or use their special powers, leaving them vulnerable for that period.^[15] Initially having no plans to retain the Capture the Flag mode after the event,^[15] Blizzard announced that they will keep the event as a custom game mode with additional options.^[68]

Blizzard's initial idea for competitive mode were to limit play to six-on-six matches where players had formed their own teams outside of normal matchmaking, with rankings based on team rather than individual performance; Kaplan stated that this would avoid issues relating to matchmaking and players dropping out mid-game in terms of tracking the team's rating. When they presented this concept to players early on, they received a large amount of negative feedback, with many players wanting to be able to play competitively solo rather than grouped with a team.^[69] From this feedback, they redesigned competitive mode to be based on a progression system, similar to Hearthstone, where initially a player would generally progress along a five-tier ladder system the more matches they played, but as they moved into higher ranks, would find further progression to be based more on skill. This approach had been tested in the beta period but Blizzard found that low-ranked players to be pitted frequently against much more highly ranked players, and that they had not accounted for players to fall out of a tier if they started to perform poorly.^[18] They further found players wanting a finer resolution of their competitive ranking to be able to better compare to other players.^[69] They opted to hold back on including competitive mode at release, and later redeveloped the mode to use the 100-point ranking system to meet these issues while continuing to look for other ways to improve the ranking system.^[69]

An improved competitive mode entered open beta testing within Battle.net's public test region on June 21, 2016.^[70][71][72] Competitive mode for Windows, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 was added on June 28, June 30 and July 1, 2016, respectively.^[31][73][74]

The United States Patent and Trademark Office suspended Blizzard's application for a trademark for Overwatch due to "a likelihood of confusion" with a previously registered trademark by Innovis Labs.^[75] On October 13, 2015, Innovis Labs and Blizzard settled a pending lawsuit. A week later, on October 21, 2015, Innovis Labs surrendered their trademark registration for Overwatch.^[76]

To develop the game's themes, Kaplan stated they wanted to create a future that was not typical of what a post-apocalyptic world might be like, opting instead for a future where conflict still exists but a "bright and aspirational vision" is maintained.^[58] The title's creative director, Chris Metzen, acknowledged that parts of Overwatch, such as maps, share "continuity" with Titan.^[55] Citing a desire to keep its game styles "simple", and because it contradicted its emphasis on accomplishing goals as a team rather than trying to achieve large numbers of kills, Overwatch does not contain a traditional deathmatch mode.^[3][4] Metzen stated that "we have a long legacy of developing multiplayer games, and it came down to 'is it even possible to build a shooter that doesn't feel cynical, that doesn't feel cruel, that doesn't feel nasty? Can you build one that really promotes teamwork and relationship and having fun with your friends, and not getting killed with a thrown knife from halfway across the map as soon as you jump in?'"^[77]

Kaplan has expressed that this theme continued into the aesthetics of the game, commenting, "when it comes to the setting and art style and tone of the universe, a lot of games like to approach the future in either a very dystopian way, or a post-apocalyptic way," and adding, "we wanted to make something bright and welcoming, that featured a lot of deep, rich colors. A lot of the modern realistic games tend to focus on gritty gray, brown palettes."^[17] Several of the initial maps, Ilios, Dorado, and Nepal, were developed based on the idea of vacation spots and drew from various imagery of those locations.^[56] Kaplan noted that Dorado, set in Mexico, was inspired by a photograph they found while searching for images of colorful Mexican towns, but only later realized that the photo was that of Manarola, Italy.^[56] Others, like the Hollywood map, were created by a multicultural team that used only their perception of what Hollywood was like, rather than any reference material, with the result being better than a realistic version, according to Kaplan.^[56] A more recent map, Oasis, set in Iraq, was portrayed as "one of the most technologically-advanced places in the world" to contrast how other games set in the near-future present the country as ravaged by war.^[56]

The narrative for Overwatch is led by Blizzard's senior game designer Michael Chu.^[2] Creating a narrative for the game was a challenge compared to past Blizzard titles as the game lacks a single-player mode or a traditional story-telling mechanic. Instead, the story crafters for the game sought to create a spanning narrative that could be interjected into the game through short in-game dialogue and unlockable hero skins.^[78] A March 2017 patch for the game added short character biographies, as well as lore details about specific character skins in the Hero Gallery.^[79] Outside of the game, the narrative is primarily driven by a transmedia storytelling method, which includes animated shorts and digitally released comics.^[80] This gives the developers some flexibility as to where they can take the story as Overwatch is expanded over the years.^[2] The narrative can still be seen being hinted at through map environments and character dialogue within the game itself; Chu explains that "you get a character like Soldier: 76 and he says, like: 'back in my day we'd have this payload delivered'. And then you get a character like Zenyatta, the robot monk, and he would say something like, "becoming one with the objective." So we find these ways to really differentiate them and it makes for unexpected and sometimes ridiculous lines."^[81] Blizzard felt they had strength in developing a narrative for a large universe of characters as they had done for Warcraft. Chu expressed that they wanted to diverge from the fantasy and science fiction elements that were prominent in their main three franchises (Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo), stating "we wanted to try something different with Overwatch, so what we decided to go for was the future of Earth. We always wanted the game to be about heroes, so we took a lot of inspiration from comics and superhero stories of our youth and today."^[81] Once it was determined Overwatch would be played on a near-futuristic version of Earth, the writers recognized the possibility of having a global-spanning set of characters and locations set in an "inspirational future".^[2] Metzen sees the Overwatch universe as having potential dynamics over time, but Blizzard does not yet have plans for how to implement this within the game.^[82]

The cast of playable characters in Overwatch was selected to portray diverse representations of genders and ethnicities, including males, females, and non-human characters such as robots and a gorilla.^[16][83] The need for a diverse cast was important to the developers, as some of Blizzard's previous games had been criticized before for missing this mark; Metzen explained that even his daughter had asked him why all the female characters from Warcraft seemed to be only wearing swimsuits.^[83] Metzen stated: "Specifically for Overwatch over the past year we've been really cognizant of that, trying not to oversexualize the female characters."^[84] Kaplan explained that the industry was "clearly in an age where gaming is for everybody," going on to say that "increasingly, people want to feel represented, from all walks of life, boys and girls, everybody. We feel indebted to do our best to honor that."^[83] Michael Chu expressed that the diverse group of characters is a result of Blizzard's approach to game design, elaborating that "We've tried [to] have a diverse cast of characters and diverse locations that you go through, and hopefully these characters - even beyond national diversity; just seeing their personalities, their backstories, their occupations - hopefully people will find things in common with these characters."^[81]

Overwatch's diversity also extends to other character facets. Blizzard has said that some of the characters have LGBT identities; Metzen said that the inclusion of LGBT characters was not "to be a data point or feel contrived in any way", but instead to have these identities "play out organically".^[85] Tracer was the first identified as one of the LGBT characters via one of the promotional online comics. Blizzard said on this reveal "as with any aspect of our characters' backgrounds, their sexuality is just one part of what makes our heroes who they are. From the very beginning of our work on Tracer's story, it just felt right to make this an aspect of her character."^[86] Blizzard reiterated their goal to have a diverse cast with Tracer's reveal, stating, "from the beginning, we've wanted the universe of Overwatch to feel welcoming and inclusive, and to reflect the diversity of our players around the world."^[87] Similarly, the character of Symmetra is considered autistic by the development team, with Kaplan saying, "we think she does a great job of representing just how awesome someone with autism can be".^[88]

The team envisioned the characters akin to superheroes in this narrative, each with their own abilities, background and personality that could stand on their own, but could also fit into the larger story; this notion translated into the characters being agents for the game, which Metzen said still captures the "heroism and vibe" that superhero stories carry.^[82] The team did not want to have any characters that served solely as villains in the game, but did develop some of the characters, like Soldier: 76, to have an unsure purpose within the narrative.^[82] Several characters evolved out of the characters and their abilities they had developed for Titan, including Tracer, Widowmaker, Bastion, Soldier: 76, Symmetra, Torbjorn, and Reinhardt.^[89] Characters were designed to avoid outright characters stereotypes. In some cases such as McCree, they took a stereotypical character but created a story and approach to embrace the stereotype. Other cases was presenting a character one would never typically see in a modern game, such as Ana, an older mother who remains a skilled sniper.^[56] The choice of Tracer as the cover art was purposely to contrast Overwatch from most other shooter games that feature a grizzled-looking older male soldier, with Kaplan saying this was to show that "normal things are normal".^[56]

Kaplan credits artist Arnold Tsang from coming up with the preliminary designs of all the heroes in the game.^[58] The narrative and characters themselves were then developed through an iterative process between the gameplay developers, artists, and promotional media as they worked to bring the narrative together.^[82] In this regards, Torbjörn was the defining character for the game, as while he was not created first, his art style was originally created by Tsang to help bridge the gap between the Warcraft universe to Overwatch. Blizzard's art director Sam Didier reviewed Tsang's original design, prompting several questions to help tighten the art design that led to Torbjörn's gameplay mechanics, and subsequently, Torbjörn's appearance was used as a baseline in all other character and map designs to make sure that these assets would appear to fit into the same universe as Torbjörn.^[90] Another example is Doomfist, a character introduced into one of the game's promotional videos where his gauntlet was on display. This led to the creation of one of the maps that expanded upon the Doomfist concept, making that a title passed down among others in the past, and seeding some of the existing heroes' backstory has had connections to the Doomfist title. Though they have no plans to introduce Doomfist as a playable character, this process gave them a sufficient starting point to work from should they introduce Doomfist in the future.^[82] Other examples of similar iterative expansion to the characters given by Metzen and Chu include the heroes Genji and Hanzo who were characters borne out of an initial single character concept and leading to them being rivals of each other, and the introduction of Lúcio as a means to expand upon the loosely connected Vishkar Corporation concept that was part of Symmetra's backstory.^[82]

Character animations were created by Blizzard's David Gibson.^[91] To help give more personality to the 3D-rendered animation, Gibson applied traditional methods used in 2D limited animation, such as smear animation, instead of relying on motion blur effects, creating more exaggerated animations that support the feel of the game.^[92][93]

Blizzard will support the game through various updates, such as the competitive mode that was added in June 2016, and potential changes to how the Play of the Game is selected to showcase non-attacking-based Heroes.^[18] Other updates will come from monitoring the game and adjusting various attributes of the Heroes to better manage their expectations they had in designing the game and in response to player feedback. For example, one of the first planned updates was to change the strength of McCree's alternate fire "Fan the Hammer" ability, which could do a great deal of damage to most targets. Blizzard felt this attack should be lethal to most of the Heroes but should not be able to take out Tank-based characters in a single shot, and reduced the damage to address this.^[18] Similarly, Symmetra had major character update in late 2016 that gave her additional abilities including a second Ultimate ability, the changes made in response to Blizzard's observations that she had been infrequently selected by players.^[94] Kaplan said that while they do want to promote lesser-played heroes, their goal of these updates is not to strive for equal selection rates for all heroes, but to work with the fluctuations in the meta-game as new heroes are introduced and new strategies by players are developed to counter new heroes or updates made to other heroes.^[95]

Not all updates will be equivalent across platforms; a planned update will reduce the damage of Torbjörn's auto-aiming turrets on console versions but will not be applied to the Windows version,^[96] while a later patch for consoles helped to improve the precision of aiming with controller analog sticks.^[97] In September 2016, Blizzard added in support for high bandwidth network play on the Windows client for users with sufficient Internet connections, which reduces the amount of interpolation delay in client and server-side prediction, making the game smoother and more reactive for those players. Players on slower bandwidth connections are grouped with others of this type of avoid any disadvantage of connection speed. Blizzard is looking for how to implement high bandwidth support in the console versions.^[98]

At launch, there were no plans for a version of Overwatch for OS X, with Kaplan saying that the OS X architecture and their optimizations for Overwatch were "just too challenging" to support initially.^[99] Kaplan has stated that they have looked into a version for the Nintendo Switch which they considered similarly challenging due to its specifications, and would complicate the nature of updating the game in a timely fashion on all consoles, but still consider the platform a viable one for the game.^[100]

Blizzard has plans to add new characters and maps to the game. With respect to characters, Kaplan expected they will release these one at a time, rather than in groups, allowing the new character to be stabilized before adding the next. Kaplan referred to the negative feedback received after the grouped introduction of the final three characters—Genji, Mei, and D.Va—during the closed beta period, which if repeated could be "disruptive" to the game's community.^[18] For example, the first new character, Ana, was revealed and playable on the Public Test region from July 12, 2016,^[101] and made available to all on the Windows version on July 19 with console versions following in the days after.^[102] Other characters like Sombra were added in a similar manner, along with other new features.^[103] In regards to maps, Blizzard first announced a new map, called "Eichenwalde", on August 16, 2016.^[104] Blizzard is also able to add in new game modes and cosmetics, such as sprays and skins, among other things. Themed limited-time modes and cosmetics have also been made available for events and holidays, such as the 2016 Summer Olympics or Halloween.^{[24][105][106]} Some of these additions are derived from player feedback to Blizzard. In the case of the "Overwatch Uprising" event during April 2017, Kaplan said that players wanted to have more story put into the game, inspiring them to create a new story-driven player-vs-environment mode set during the early days of Overwatch's formation that helped to create some new narrative and provide cosmetic items to reflect that.^[107]

Blizzard has said it is committed to maintaining a competitive landscape for the game and will take proactive steps to prevent cheating through hacks and other tricks. Blizzard performed one such mass-ban of players they had found to be using aimbots and other cheating assistants in late July 2016.^[108] Following Overwatch's release, Blizzard sought legal action against Bossland Hacks for Watchover Tyrant tool that enables certain cheats and advantages to players in Overwatch, among other features,^[109] eventually winning the case by default and being awarded $8.5 million in damages.^[110]

File:Blizzard- Overwatch (20296015936).jpg

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.^[111] During this event Blizzard released a cinematic trailer and an extended gameplay video for the game.^[53][112] A month after the BlizzCon event, in 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.^[111]

A closed beta period for Overwatch across all three platforms began on October 27, 2015.^[113] The closed beta was put on "extended break" in December and brought back in February 2016.^[114] Following the March 2016 release announcement, Blizzard also announced an open beta period from May 5 to 9 for any registered user of the Battle.net client.^[115][116] The open beta proven popular with Blizzard reporting over 9.7 million players participating,^[117] and as a way of showing thanks, extended the open beta period by one extra day.^[118]

In the week prior to 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.^{[119][120][121]} The displays were created by Alliance Studios, led by Steve Wang, who has collaborated with Blizzard before on past projects, and Eddie Yang.^[122] 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.^[123] Propelled by Overwatch, Blizzard had over 50% of the American advertisement share among gaming industry brands from May 16 to June 15, 2016.^[124]

Overwatch was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One platforms on May 24, 2016, with the game servers coming online at 00:00 BST that day. Blizzard allowed retailers to sell physical copies of the game on May 23 to help players prepare for the servers' launch.^[125][126] The game will be supported by updates, including new maps and characters. All of the additional content will be free for existing players and does not require additional payment. Blizzard hoped that through this method they can alleviate the concerns of some players.^[127]

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.^[128] 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, the game's soundtrack, and a source book.^[129]

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.^[130][131]

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.^[81] Chu has also remarked that the reasoning for Blizzard's method of storytelling with Overwatch was an emphasis on a "gameplay first" philosophy.^[132]

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.^[133] 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.^[134]

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.^[112] A collection of these cinematic sequences played in movie theaters across the United States as part of the game's launch event.^[135] 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.^[136] The second episode, Alive, showcased a standoff between Tracer and Widowmaker, and was released on April 5.^[137] The third episode, Dragons, featuring the brothers Hanzo and Genji, was released on May 16.^[138] The fourth and final episode of the series' first season, Hero, stars Soldier: 76, and was released May 22.^[139]

Overwatch characters and elements have been brought over to Blizzard's crossover multi-player online battle arena game, Heroes of the Storm. The characters Tracer, Lúcio, Zayra, Genji, and D.Va are all playable heroes in Heroes of the Storm, and an arena based on the Overwatch map Hanamura has been added to the game.^[140][141]

Blizzard and Dark Horse Comics announced a partnership at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con International that will have Dark Horse publish the existing Overwatch comics to date under their label as well as future comics, and will publish a 100-page art book The Art of Overwatch to be released mid-2017.^[142]

Funko has produced several Overwatch character figurines in their Pop line since the game's launch.^[143] Good Smile Company announced they will produce Nendoroid figurines of various Overwatch characters in 2017 and onward, starting with Tracer, and followed by Mercy and Mei.^[144]

According to Activision Blizzard spokesperson Stacey Sher, there are plans for an Overwatch movie and animated series.^[145]

File:Overwatch (28943036252).jpg

According to Kaplan, Overwatch was not developed with any dedication towards eSports. 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", instead seeing how the community developed this over time as they saw from Hearthstone.^[64] Kaplan stated they included and planned for features for the game to support the competitive community.^[64] 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 titles 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.^[146] Bryant Francis writing for Gamasutra also noted the speed and short match times of Overwatch make the game highly favorable for viewership, further supporting the title as an eSports title.^[147]

Just prior to 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?"^[148] 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."^[148] 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."^[148]

In June 2016, the eSports organizer ESL announced that they would host the first international Overwatch competition in August 2016, called Overwatch Atlantic Showdown.^[149] The competition will use four open qualifiers beginning in June, followed by regional qualifiers and then a final online qualifier. Eight teams will then compete for a six-figure prize in the finals to be held at Gamescom 2016 from August 20–21.^[150] Turner Broadcasting's ELeague announced the first Overwatch Open tournament, starting in 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.^[151] In November, 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.^[152]

During the 2016 Blizzcon, Blizzard announced their plans for their Overwatch League, using an organization of permanent teams in league placements similar to more traditional physical sports,^[153] rather than the use of relegation and promotion used in a series like League of Legends Championship Series.^[154] Blizzard will help to organize potential team owners and aim to include more geographically-local teams to participate, which they hope will help spark more interest in eSports from spectators and potential sponsors through new activities around supporting a local team. Blizzard anticipates the Overwatch League will have a seven-figure payoff for the winning team at the end of a season, but plans on paying a salary to all players within the league. The first, shortened season of the League is expected to start in Q3 2017, but will begin in full seasons starting in 2018, with the League having half-year long seasonal breaks starting in Q4 of that year.^[154] A meeting for prospective team owners was held at Blizzcon after the announcement, with New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft, and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke among the attendees.^[155]

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."^[173] The game's open beta, which attracted 9.7 million players, was also noted to be heavily covered by the media.^[174]

Overwatch received universal acclaim upon release, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.^{[170][171][172]}

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."^[175] 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.^[176] 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."^[176] 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."^[80] 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.^[177] 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's online shooter series," but opines that "[Overwatch is] just better."^[177] Daniel Tack of The News & Observer also 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."^[178] Tack went on to praise the game's characters, writing "Unforgettable characters are the lifeblood and driving force of Overwatch."^[178] 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.^[179] 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."^[179] 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."^[180]

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.^[181] 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."^[132]

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."^[182] Kaplan acknowledged that with the introduction of competitive mode that the whole of the Overwatch community has become more toxic, and they are constantly adapting elements behind the scenes to help deal with aggressive players in a more responsive manner, while trying to promote more enjoyable matches.^[183]

Overwatch was later considered the best game of 2016 by numerous publications, including IGN, GameSpot, Game Informer and Eurogamer, receiving 98 game of the year awards across critics and reader polls.^[184]

A week from its launch, Blizzard reported over 7 million Overwatch players with a total accumulated playtime of 119 million hours;^[185] Blizzard reported more than 10 million players by mid-June,^[186] and has reported continued increases in the player base, with 25 million players as of January 2017.^{[187][188][189]} 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 in June 2016;^[190][191] 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.^[192] With digital sales, Overwatch was the fastest selling game during its release month.^[193] SuperData Research estimated that Overwatch brought in more than $269 million in revenues from digital sales worldwide in May,^[194] and over $565M in sales on personal computers along by the end of 2016, making it the highest revenue-generating non-free-to-play game for personal computers in the year.^[195]

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.^[196]

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."^[53] A gamer with cerebral palsy publicly praised the game's customizable controls, which let him make his first snipe in a video game.^[197][198] One of Blizzard's artists, Roman Kenney, drew concept art based on one gamer's daughter's original Overwatch character design.^[199] 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.^[200]

Blizzard has encouraged fans of Overwatch to make artistic content based on the game.^[201] 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.^[202] Fans have used these, the game's animated media, and other assets to create a large amount of content, including art,^[203][204] cosplay,^[205][206] and anime opening-style music videos.^[207][208] Some Overwatch concepts have created internet memes such as "Gremlin D.Va", which focuses on the character D.Va, portrayed through Western gamer stereotypes.^[209] 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.^[210] 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."^[56]

There also exists pornographic fan art of the game, with Pornhub searches of Overwatch characters partaking in sexual activities spiking by 817% shortly after the release of the open beta.^[211] A large amount of such pornographic fan works are created with Valve Corporation's Source Filmmaker tool and make use of the game's actual models, which were ripped from the game during its closed beta and consequently spread over the internet.^[212] Aoife Wilson of Eurogamer described the works as often being of "high-quality", though criticized how female characters were commonly portrayed in a submissive manner outside of futanari works.^[213] In contrast, Mo Mozuch of iDigitalTimes noted that much pornography of the character Mei is fairly body positive.^[214] The character Tracer is by far the most commonly searched Overwatch-related subject.^{[211][215][216]} Blizzard made efforts to remove the works.^[201] Game director Jeffery Kaplan stated that while they do not want to infringe on anyone's freedom of expression, Blizzard is mindful that many players are teenagers or younger and would hope the community would try to keep such imagery away from them.^[69] By the end of 2016, Overwatch was the top gaining search on Pornhub with an 833% increase among people ages 18–24.^[217]

Year	Award	Category	Result	Ref
2016	Golden Joystick Awards 2016	Best Original Game	Won	[218][219]
		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	[220][221]
		Best Game Direction	Won
		Best Art Direction	Nominated
		Best Action Game	Nominated
		Best Multiplayer	Won
		ESports Game of the Year	Won
	Gamespot's Best of 2016	The Best PC Games of 2016	Top 5	[222]
		The Best Xbox One Games of 2016	Top 5	[223]
		The Best PS4 Games of 2016	Top 5	[224]
		Game of the Year	Won	[225]
	Giant Bomb's 2016 Game of the Year Awards	Best Debut	Won	[226]
		Best Multiplayer	Won	[227]
		Best Game	3rd Place	[228]
	Eurogamer Game of the Year	Game of the Year	Won	[229]
	Polygon's 2016 Games of the Year	Game of the Year	3rd Place	[230]
	PCGamer's Game of the Year Awards 2016	Best Multiplayer	Won	[231]
	Game Informer Best of 2016 Awards	Best Competitive Multiplayer	Won	[232]
		Best Shooter	Won
		Game of the Year	Won
	2016 Hollywood Music in Media Awards	Best Original Score - Video Game	Won	[233]
	IGN Best of 2016 Awards	Best Shooter	Won	[234]
		Best eSports Game	Won
		Best Multiplayer	Won
		PC Game of the Year	Won
		Game of the Year	Won
	Slant Magazine Top 25 Best Video Games of 2016	Game of the Year	3rd Place	[235]
	Game Revolution's End of 2016 Awards	Best Game	Won	[236]
	EGM's Best of 2016	Game of the Year	Won	[237]
	GamesTM's Game of the Year Awards	Game of the Year	Won	[238]
	The Escapist Awards 2016	Best Shooter, Multiplayer	Won	[239]
		Game of the Year	Won	[240]
	Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences D.I.C.E. Awards 2016	Game of the Year	Won	[241]
		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
	Game Developers Choice Awards 2016	Game of the Year	Won	[242][243]
		Best Audio	Nominated
		Best Design	Won
		Best Technology	Nominated
		Best Visual Art	Nominated
	2017 SXSW Gaming Awards	Video Game of the Year	Nominated	[244][245]
		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
	13th British Academy Games Awards	Best Game	Nominated	[246][247]
		Game Design	Nominated
		Multiplayer	Won
		Original Property	Nominated
		AMD Esports Audience Award	Nominated
2017	National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers	Game of The Year	Won	[248]
		Game, Original Action	Won
		Original Light Mix Score, New IP	Nominated
		Character Design	Won
		Game Design, New IP	Nominated

Despite its success, there have been a number of controversies around Overwatch prior to and after release.

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. Anita Sarkeesian commented on the lack of diversity in the female heroes' body types from the game's first twelve revealed characters,^[249] while Nathan Grayson of Kotaku remarked that "Overwatch's women are mostly super slim and clad in cat suits."^[84] In response to these criticisms and to reassert their commitment to diversity and avoiding sexualization, the team developed a new female character, Zarya, a Tank class character with an atypical body shape.^[250]

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 critiqued by a user as out of character and oversexualized. Games Director, Jeff 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. Jeff Kaplan later stated that the team was already unsure of the pose and was thinking of changing it.^[251] The following week, a replacement pose was released, although it was noted to be similar to the original pose.^[252][253] The replacement pose was alleged to be influenced by a Billy De Vorss cheesecake pin-up illustration. The pose was replaced during the game's beta period, before the game's launch.^[252][253]

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. Kaplan noted that they considered for all these outfits if they were appropriate, believing 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.^[69]

In Overwatch's Asia servers, there were problems with numerous players using hacks tied to the growing number of younger players using PC bangs in South Korea that allow 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 repercussion, as 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.^[254] Subsequently, Blizzard announced that players from South Korea will be required to log into a Battle.net account to play the game from February 2017 onward, which requires unique identification include an difficult-to-spoof resident registration number, which Blizzard believes will help to alleviate the problem.^[255]

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.^[256] Some players have also 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.^[257]

• Official website