Maunganui And Utopia In Overwatch? Dataminers Find New Maps In Code

Overwatch’s newest map, the Horizon Lunar Colony, hasn’t even hit the live servers yet but dataminers might have already uncovered something even better. Reddit user Richard Gryffon, the same one who discovered the flag icons a few weeks ago , is back with a couple of clues leading to two new maps. Looking around the “map_source228” folders, Gryffon stumbled upon three lines of code, referencing some odd stuff.

The three files are titled: “Hlc_cp” “ maunganui_es” and “utopia_c.” On their own, they just look like a bunch of jumbled code, but as a whole they start to make sense. Using our armrest problem solving skills, we can guess that the Horizon Lunar Colony is “hlc_cp” with “cp” meaning control point. With a key, Gryffon was able to decipher what the other two maps could be.

Maunganui- “‘Mount Maunganui’ is in the city of Tauranga, New Zealand,” writes Gryffon. New Zealand just happens to be one of the 2017 Summer Games Icons that were datamined, which could just be a really weird coincidence. “ES” could mean that it’s an Escort map, like Hollywood or King’s Row. Players could be scaling the mountain with a payload, making us fight like mountain goats scaling the side of a cliff.

Utopia- In a world with a place called “Oasis,” is naming something “Utopia” any less weird or pretentious? Symmetra is from Utopia, India, a place full of modern marvels and corporate espionage. In the “ A Better World ” comic, we learn that Lumerico, the company that Symmetra works for, will destroy lives just for the sake of the bottom line. It wouldn’t be that crazy for them to have a part in dismantling Symmetra’s home. It’s unclear what “c” could mean, but I’m guessing it has something to do with a Control map. India also happens to be one of the datamined icons as well, making this theory seem even more legit.

According to Gryffon, there are no “images, sounds or references to these maps” and these could actually just be “concept ideas.” There’s no concrete evidence to this theory, but there’s nothing I love more than dissecting a reddit theory and seeing if it becomes true. I’m much too lazy to be an actual detective (or even just a dataminer) so these video game mysteries always pique my curiosity.

There’s two ways this can go: Blizzard could either have set an elaborate mousetrap full of coincidences and red herrings that don’t actually lead anywhere, or a developer didn’t clean the files properly and a huge spoiler just got unleashed on the world. We know the Horizon Lunar Colony has been a map idea for the Overwatch team since they started working on the game thanks to their announcement video, but what about the other two?

Unless Gryffon is messing with the community and just trying to spark a controversy, there just seem to be too many coincidences for this to be nothing. Blizzard hates when leaks get out to the community, and if the next event and its maps got leaked before their time, Jeff Kaplan would enter a Winston-level Primal Rage. Personally, I believe these places might have something to do with the 2017 Summer Games event, but won’t be new maps. We’ve had four new maps in the last few months, three just happen to be smaller than usual.

I’ve always wanted to go to New Zealand, but I’m cool with taking D.Va and Torbjorn there instead.

Do you think these are the next Overwatch maps or is this just the internet conspiracy theory machine shitting out another turd?