It’s summertime! Do you know what that means? Time for that annual dose of new Overwatch content. In the new developer update presented by game director Jeff Kaplan, we learn the studio’s summer plans for the hero shooter. The Overwatch Summer Games 2019 are coming soon, but the most notable tidbit was Hero 31 is delayed.
As noted by the video above, Blizzard Entertainment typically releases a new hero during the month of July. For reference, Ana, Doomfist, and Wrecking Ball were all released in July. However, that will not be the case this year as the next hero release is getting delayed.
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“Hero number 31 is going to be awesome, but he is going to be released a little later than you’re used to. But he’ll be here soon enough” says Kaplan giving a very small clue of who this hero will possibly be. “We think a little bit of extra time is going to make the hero even more awesome.”
Who Hero 31 will be is still a bit of a mystery. But as you heard from Kaplan himself, the next hero will be a “he.” Despite the lack of a traditional campaign mode in Overwatch, Blizzard has introduced a slew of characters that have been mentioned or shown in the various animated shorts, as well as in-game through environmental story-telling.
Kaplan also mentioned that the Summer Games will be returning this year. However, it is going to happen “much sooner” than expected. Since the event was inaugurated back in 2016, Summer Games lasted the duration of August. If it’s coming “much sooner,” it’s possible it can commence sometime this month. Kaplan did not mention a date, but he did say that information will be coming soon.
Kaplan did give a little bit of information pertaining to the upcoming Summer Games. Similar to the Baptiste Reunion Challenge, each of the three weeks the event is taking place will have “mini challenge” where you’ll have the chance to unlock an epic skin.
“We think some of the changes to how we distribute skins and how you get them will be much more compelling,” says Kaplan discussing the new Summer Games weekly challenges. “You’ll enjoy that a lot more.”
Lastly, Kaplan concludes by briefly mentioning some quality-of-life improvements being made to Overwatch. This includes the recent inclusion of subtitles and an improved cheat detection system that is currently on PTR servers.
