14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Blizzard announces that its new major project is a team-based first-person shooter called Overwatch, which is designed to deliver an action packed experience and will use an entirely new universe that the studio has created entirely from scratch.
The game is designed to be easy to learn for all gamers and will feature teams of six that are aiming to control a wide variety of future locations, each of them with unique features that encourage team play and solid use of special abilities
The official announcement states, "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. After many years, the group’s influence waned, and it was eventually disbanded. Overwatch might be gone now . . . but the world still needs heroes."
Blizzard says that the game will have a wide range of heroes and the initial reveal focuses on: Tracer, a test pilot from Britain who focuses on teleportation, energy bombs and time control; Hanzo, a mercenary from Japan who uses a bow, fire tracking devices and can attack enemies with a dragon; Reinhardt, a German soldier who has a rocket hammer and a slam ability; and Symmetra, an architect from India who uses light to defend allies and attack enemies.
Mike Morhaime, the chief executive officer of Blizzard, states, "With every new Blizzard game, we look at our favorite aspects of a genre and put our own spin on things. 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."
Overwatch will move into beta next year
The new Blizzard video game is at the moment early in the development process, but those who are attending BlizzCon can test the core mechanics.
A beta version of the experience will be delivered at some point in 2015 and will include a variety of both maps and heroes.
The studio probably wants to follow the same development process it has for Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone, allowing the community to offer important feedback as the core ideas are being refined.
Blizzard has not yet specified what kind of business model it plans to use for Overwatch, but it's very probable that the core game will be entirely free-to-play.
