The action of Overwatch. takes place in a technologically advanced, highly stylized future earth. 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.

With an emphasis on accessibility and pure fun, Overwatch. brings Blizzard’s signature easy-to-learn, hard-to-master gameplay to the FPS genre. Harnessing the power of their hero of choice, players will join forces in teams of six and battle each other across a range of futuristic global locations, from the hologram-lit streets of London to a bazaar in the shadows of a high-tech Egyptian pyramid. Every battlefield is iconic and built to highlight each character’s unique abilities, and fights can shift from streets to rooftops to open skies within the span of a breath.

While each hero represents a formidable force on their own, players can amplify their potential by assembling into a well-balanced team and creatively combining powers. No matter which hero or playstyle they prefer, players will be able to team up and accomplish the incredible in Overwatch.

As players compete in matches—win or lose—they’ll level up and earn Loot Boxes, each containing a combination of four items players can use to customize their heroes, including in-game credits and cosmetic goodies including skins, sprays, voice lines, and new animations. Among these items are legendary skins that dramatically alter heroes’ appearances, such as the post-apocalyptic Scavenger D.Va, or Lone Wolf Hanzo, which fills Overwatch’s expert bowman with the spirit of the wild.

Game Director Jeff Kaplan outlines major content coming with Overwatch Patch 1.45, scheduled for early February.

1. Balance Philosophy Update
   • The team is looking to implement more frequent and impactful balance updates with the intention to deliberately change the meta. 
   • Additionally, with more impactful changes planned, the team is open to the idea of reverting changes when necessary.
   • There have been a lot of requests recently for the game to undergo more rapid change to keep the game fresh, so this is our attempt to fulfill this request
   • See the next point for our first iteration of this process…
2. Experimental Card
   • The team will be introducing a new main card to the Play screen known as Experimental Card. This card will allow us to test major changes to the game that may or may not reach the standard game modes
   • Because the Experimental Card is in the live version of the game, this mode will now allow console players to participate in experimental content testing
   • Players will still be able to progress and unlock Loot Boxes when playing in the Experimental Card, offering even more incentive for testing unreleased content
   • Unlike the PTR, the Experimental Card is not for bug testing. Instead, it will be used to experiment with balance updates, game modes, or changes to rules that we are investigating internally. While some of these features will reach live, the content within this game mode is not guaranteed to be released.
3. Hero Pools
   • During Season 21, we will be implementing a new system called Hero Pools, where a few heroes will be disabled from Competitive Play for a given week. Each week will feature a new pool of heroes.
   • We’re trying Hero Pools for Season 21, and depending on how it performs, it may not persist past that season. We are also going to keep a close eye on this system to see if the hero pool rotation cadence should be changed (e.g. weekly, daily, by match).
   • The selection of heroes will be curated by the design team, rather than random assortment chosen by algorithm
   • This will only affect the Competitive Play and will not be seen in the Arcade or Quick Play.
   • The goal of this system is to allow the meta to change weekly and see more hero diversity in matches.
   • Expect more information on how this affects the Overwatch League via blog soon.
4. Other updates
   • This update will be beefing up our anti-cheat efforts. Please continue to send over any reports and any information you have on the subject to aid in our ongoing efforts to improve our anti-cheat systems
   • Workshop quality of life updates