Overwatch is presently celebrating its tenth anniversary, however gamers aren’t essentially within the temper to have fun. With a lot of the fanbase wanting ahead to extra in-game occasions, the backlash barely halted the momentum Blizzard’s shooters have constructed since dropping the “2” and rebranding again to Overwatch.
As soon as the anniversary occasion started, gamers had to spend so much of time finishing matches and goals to earn loot containers containing new colorways and outdated skins. This grind of overwhelming loot is under no circumstances what longtime followers (like myself) anticipated to mark such a milestone.
To the developer’s credit score, recreation director Aaron Keller was fast to reply on social media, stating that the second and third weeks of the occasion will see elevated rewards and simpler acquisition, with gamers assured a minimal of 10 legendary skins.
Wanting forward, we’re additionally planning extra limited-season occasions for Season 3 with much more rewards, increasing the bottom stage of rewards you may earn within the weekly Play N Video games tracker, and dealing on different concepts for later this 12 months. 6/8
β Aaron Keller (@aaronkellerOW) Might 15, 2026
However some really feel that is nonetheless not sufficient to have fun Overwatch’s tenth anniversary. This drawback is additional exacerbated by the jealous eyes staring on the plethora of latest skins and rewards for Chinese language gamers to commemorate the identical event.
Walter Kong, basic supervisor of Overwatch and head of reside video games and cell improvement at Blizzard, additionally acknowledged this, and defined it in an interview with videogameaddicted. “Nicely, in hindsight, I believe that is one thing that we needed to readjust. We needed to take motion pretty rapidly, so we made changes to the occasion,” Kong mentioned.
“The character of improvement is that numerous the construction of those occasions comes collectively over a big time frame,” he continued. “So there are some limitations in how we pivot, and as we sat across the desk watching the suggestions are available in, we had been satisfied that we wanted to recalibrate, however we see the tenth anniversary as greater than only a present occasion. We would like this 12 months to be a possibility to essentially have fun the tenth anniversary of Overwatch. And even going again to Season 1, our ambition to launch 10 heroes that 12 months is strictly 10 As we have fun our anniversary, we’re doing much more this 12 months to remind our gamers how a lot we admire their continued involvement with our video games.”
As for why Chinese language gamers obtain unique content material not out there in different elements of the world, all of it comes all the way down to Blizzard and NetEase’s relationship in that a part of the world. βA part of it has to do with our partnership construction with NetEase,β Kong defined.
“I believe NetEase has a accountability to publish our video games in China. One in every of their approaches is to do issues particular to that market,” he added. βAnd the method we need to take is to ensure that our video games make gamers really feel valued, whatever the market. And whereas I do not suppose this occasion was on top of things, I believe that is one thing that we need to do in future occasions and occasions. It implies that if you’re wanting ahead to an occasion, you’ve a really particular view of, ‘Is that this the correct solution to run an occasion?’ And, from an total perspective, ‘What is the stability of issues?’
Overwatch has been experiencing some resurgence lately following the announcement that the sport will probably be eradicating “2” and including 10 new heroes sooner or later. This 12 months, Overwatch enters a “new story-driven period” with a year-long saga and a serious overhaul that started with the launch of Season 1 on February tenth. Each Blizzard and the Overwatch fanbase will probably be hoping this occasion is a small step ahead for a recreation that has been in pretty much as good a form because it has been for years.
That optimism is shared by Kong, who’s pleased with each the current and way forward for the hero shooter. βI wish to say that I’m pleased with the way in which the sport went in the present day,β he mentioned. “I believe it is sturdy from a play expertise standpoint as effectively. Having refined it over such a time frame, our method to the sport, particularly in the previous couple of years, has turn out to be extra oriented in the direction of an nearly collaborative course of with the participant. So I am pleased with the place the sport is true now, and I am additionally very, very optimistic about the way forward for not simply the sport, however the franchise as an entire.”
Simon Cardy is a senior editor at videogameaddicted, the place he largely spends his time wandering round open-world video games, indulging in Korean motion pictures, and despairing over the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Comply with him on Bluesky. @cardy.bsky.social.