Overwatch New Year's Developer Update: Hero 27, Year Of The Dog And More

Jeff Kaplan of the Overwatch team just started the new year off with a bang, releasing a New Year’s developer update. Wrapped in a black Irvine shirt, the lead designer listed some of the game’s 2017 achievements and what’s coming in the next year.

Blizzard World- The highly anticipated Blizzard theme park map revealed at Blizzcon 2017 will finally hit live servers. Get ready to ride the Diablo roller coaster, nosh on Starcraft delicacies and blast Pharrahs into a giant shark sometime in the next few months. I’ve been waiting for this skin for what feels like an eternity so I’m super excited.

Hero 27- The next hero after Moira is in the works and is “really fun” according to Kaplan. Though there are no actual concrete details about hero 27, we do know that Kaplan and his team are trying to make the best hero possible.

Next Event- Like the Year Of The Rooster event last year that celebrated the Chinese New Year, Overwatch will be having a Year Of The Dog event in 2018. The YOTD will be bigger than before, which hopefully means I won’t have to play Capture The Flag ever again.

Story Expanded- We are going to learn more about the world behind Overwatch , which hopefully means D.Va’s full backstory. I also expect more information on Brigitte Lindholm, who we saw recently in Reinhardt’s cinematic.

Uprising- The Uprising event that introduced us to Null Sector will come back sometime in 2018. Kaplan believes fans that weren’t around for the event should still get to experience the best horde mode that lets you shoot purple robots. Though it’s unclear what the event will bring, expect new skins for some of the game’s classic Overwatch heroes like Winston. Null Sector Orisa is still my fave skin for the tank so I’m hoping I’ll get something else to add to the collection.

Loot Boxes- Instead of just adding new content to special holiday or event boxes, the Overwatch team will be adding new cosmetics to the base set. If you’ve collected every emote, dance and legendary skin from the main set, soon you’ll have a reason to give Blizzard even more of your money. It’s good to see that they aren’t abandoning old content, but it does just feel like a corporate move to incentivize giving Blizzard even more of your money.

What do you want out of Overwatch in 2018? Tell us in a Hanzo quote.