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Overwatch Developer Update Includes 27th Hero, Competitive Tweaks, and More

The Overwatch team is going back to work and game director Jeff Kaplan is laying out what players can expect in 2018.

Ozzie Mejia

January 2, 2018 10:22 AM

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Now that New Years Day is over, it's time to get back to work. That rings true for the Overwatch team as much as it does anybody else. That's why game director Jeff Kaplan (fresh off his stint as a human yule log) is ready to address the Overwatch faithful and offer a look at what's coming in the future. That includes the game's next playable character.

"One of the things that's most important to us is Heroes," Kaplan said. "Overwatch is a game about Heroes. And we are well along the path on Hero 27. We think the Hero is going to be awesome. We think the Hero is going to be needed. We're not really sure when the release date is. The release date is less important to us than getting the Hero right. We have the Hero in internal testing and, so far, we're having a ton of fun and making a lot of great progress."

Tuesday's Developer Update video began with a recap of the events of 2017. Kaplan then got into what's coming next. In the immediate future, that includes the Overwatch League skins and the start of the Overwatch League itself. The Blizzard World map (which debuted at BlizzCon 2017) is also set to join the official map rotation in the coming weeks, following a few tweaks.

Other changes include some tweaks to Competitive Seasons and the design philosophy surrounding them, the progression of the Overwatch storyline and the next lore-based event, the upcoming Lunar New Year, and more. Check out the full video below.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?