Blizzard Announces Overwatch, New Battle-Arena Shooter

Blizzard has announced its first new IP in seventeen years, Overwatch. Built from the remnants of Project Titan, Blizzard’s cancelled MMO, it features a new graphics engine, characters and a whole new world to explore. The basis of the game is quite simple, a 6 vs 6 team-based shooter, similar to Team Fortress 2. There are twelve current “heroes” in the roster with MOBA style abilities, but the game plays more like a shooter than anything else, with no economy, ability level-ups or in-game farming, like most MOBAs.

Overwatch will focus more on team-objectives like capture the flag, secure the objective and other team-based shooting experiences. Not every hero wields a gun, some use arrows, some use melee and there is a class just for healing and protection. Blizzard has got creative with some of the designs of the characters, allowing them to change forms and offer different abilities to help the team. It looks to be a very team focused game, meaning it is probably best played with friends instead of randoms.

This definitely has remnants of the cancelled Project Titan – including the auto-switch between third and first person; something Blizzard specifically said would be coming to the cancelled MMO. Blizzard had a playable tester at their annual Blizzcon event this week, showing the studio has been working on this game for some time. There will be a beta next year, allowing people to get a chance to play Overwatch before official release.

No word on the business model for Overwatch, whether it will be like Valve’s Team Fortress 2, with its own economy selling hats, cosmetics and other weapons. Hopefully, Blizzard will look to make it fair for everyone playing, not giving a disadvantage to new players.

Check out for the beta in 2015 – Blizzard also has Heroes of the Storm coming around that time.