Blizzard Announces Overwatch - A Team based MP FPS

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"On Friday during BlizzCon 2014, Blizzard Entertainment introduced its first new game property in 17 years: Overwatch. The game is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter that anyone can pick up and play, placing gamers on a battle-weary, "technically advanced" earth in the near future.

In a time of global crisis, an international task force of soldiers, scientists, adventurers, and oddities known as Overwatch had come together to restore peace to a war-torn world," the press release said. "After many years, the group's influence waned, and it was eventually disbanded. Overwatch might be gone now...but the world still needs heroes.

Essentially, Overwatch sounds like Blizzard's version of Team Fortress 2. Players group together in teams of six to battle an opposing team across a number of futuristic environments, such as an Egyptian pyramid or the streets of London. Players will also have 12 characters/classes to choose from, including Tracer, Reinhardt, Hanzo and Symmetra.

According to Blizzard, Tracer can perform acrobatic assaults, drop energy bombs, teleport and more. Reinhardt is the team's tank, a huge soldier wearing battle armor. Hanzo is a Japanese mercenary wielding a bow, and Symmetra is an Indian architect that protects the team by using energy and light.


Additional characters listed on the Overwatch website include Reaper, Widowmaker, Winston, Pharah, Torbjorn, Bastion, Mercy and Zenyatta.

Overwatch is our take on a vibrant, near-future universe with amped-up characters and action-packed team-based gameplay," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "Our goal with Overwatch is to create an awesome FPS experience that's more accessible to a much wider audience while delivering the action and depth that shooter fans love."

Game Screenshots & Individual Character based gameplay Vids - http://us.battle.net/overwatch/en/media/
http://us.battle.net/overwatch/en/media/

Blizzard will begin beta testing the game sometime in 2015, but potential testers can sign up for the beta -
Beta Signup - http://us.battle.net/overwatch/en/
 
They already have Heroes of the Storm, and now Overwatch. Going after Valve in a big way? The pricing model will be interesting. I heard that the Heroes Of The Storm model is too expensive/grindy.
 
Aman27deep said:
Valve stole DOTA, so Blizzard are trying to steal TF2 :p
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Hope you don't mean literally because Valve didn't steal anything. Blizzard just lacked foresight. Should have picked up Icefrog much earlier. WoW's success has blinded them slightly.

But I do have a good feeling about Overwatch.
 
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Heh. Valve blindsided Blizzard beautifully and it was glorious to watch. And now Blizzard is trying to get in on the MOBA/TeamFPS pie.
 
It's interesting because Valve's first entry into an RTS type game (not exactly, but close enough) is a roaring success when they only made FPS games in the past. Now Overwatch will be Blizzard's first foray into FPS territory.
 
Neither company stole anything because neither invented the genre.
Neither company blindsided the other because both Dota2 and Heroes were in development for a long time.

The only thing in contention was the DOTA name, which Blizzard graciously bowed out of because they decided to go with the title of Blizzard All-Stars (now Heroes of the Storm).
These events took place way before even Dota2 was released.

Blizzard had no need of Icefrog since their game which they refer to as a 'Hero Brawler' is completely different from Dota or other traditional mobas.

I'd say the game dynamics of Heroes are closer to Diablo pvp or even a topdown version of TF2 than Dota2.
Actually yea, Diablo pvp meets TF2 perfectly describes Heroes. It's a slower, more objective oriented game with much slower hero battles (no getting one-shot after a 6 second stun).

As for Overwatch, it's a last minute salvage attempt of the canceled Titan project.
 
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saumilsingh said:
The only thing in contention was the DOTA name, which Blizzard graciously bowed out of because they decided to go with the title of Blizzard All-Stars (now Heroes of the Storm).
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Haha no they didn't. Blizzard sued Valve for the Dota name, and Pendragon even transferred all Dota All Stars rights to screw over Valve.

http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/gen...eing-sued-by-blizzard-for-use-of-dota-535373/
http://kotaku.com/5883938/blizzard-and-valve-go-to-war-over-dota-name
http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Blizzard-Valve-Settle-DOTA-Lawsuit-42430.html
http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=1812984&page=2


Dota saw nothing but neglect when it was a WC3 mod. There was hardly any support from Blizzard. We begged for years to increase the custom game map size limit from 4 MB to 8 MB because the map wasn't big enough to add new features, and Blizzard only added it after 3 years or so. Valve gave Dota a fresh lease of life, and it is now more successful than Dota 1 ever hoped to be.
 
Err yea, that's what is meant by contention.
Neither side had any real claim to the trademark, Valve just picked it up (because they could) and Blizzard sued (because they could).

Once Blizzard decided to not create yet another Dota clone, they let Valve have the trademark without further contest.
I am glad they went their own way, don't need more of the same type of games. I quite like the 20min pacing of Heroes with all the excess fat cut off (no laning phase, all action all the time).
 
There was hardly any "graceful bowing out". They settled out of court once Blizzard realized just how far a game called "Blizzard DOTA" would go (not very far). Since then Valve has had to change 2 hero names and completely redesign another to prevent potential lawsuits with Blizzard. Once Heroes of the Storm is fully released there will definitely be more claims and challenges from Blizzard.

Blizzard as a whole is not very competent with competitive titles. They had a huge presence in esports with Brood War, which they managed to drag down with SC2. There is still a place for short casual hero based games, and I hope HotS does well in that. But I am not sure where they are going with Overwatch. Wasn't Jay Wilson shifted to Titan from Diablo 3, before Titan was shelved? That man has talent, running everything he touches to the ground.
 
Jc36 said:
There was hardly any "graceful bowing out". They settled out of court once Blizzard realized just how far a game called "Blizzard DOTA" would go (not very far).
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Which of course you know from your very in-depth knowledge of the inner workings at Blizzard right?
Or maybe it's simple common sense to not call your game Dota when it's not Dota.

As for Titan, it's not the first game Blizzard has shelved and it won't be the last. They're well known to shelve titles in late development stages if they don't meet their standards.
 
Hey, didn't you notice? I was sitting right beside you at the Blizzard board meeting. If you want to pass off your opinions as facts, better be prepared for others doing the same too.
 
This is awesome. I love FPS games. I play CS Go on steam currently. And i also play a blizzard game - World of Warcraft. Can't wait for this.
 
It's a good thing Blizzard didn't get hold of Dota anyway. They're awful at balance. HotS seems to be a lot more casual in its approach.

Still, Overwatch looks interesting.
 
This showed up in the B.net app recently, probably gearing up for Technical Alpha.

Apparently it has MOBA elements in it. Games are limited to 5v5 and every character has a cooldown based signature 'heroic/ultimate' ability.
 
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