We have gathered all the information available so far about the anniversary event of Overwatch, the Anniversary Event, there is.
Starting from May 23, the next event kicks off in Overwatch. Blizzard’s hero shooter is celebrating its first birthday, and the developers have started releasing teasers here and there a few days ago. They are showing snippets of what the event will offer.
We have collected all the breadcrumbs and are trying to piece the loaf back together – at least for a rough overview of what the Overwatch event brings, it should suffice.
The anniversary of Overwatch takes place from May 23 to June 12.
Overwatch Anniversary Skins
An event should, of course, come with suitable new skins for the heroes. A few new costumes have already been introduced in a Twitter post. Here you can see the first Overwatch Anniversary Skins of Zarya, Bastion, Soldier: 76, and Lúcio.
Additionally, a new skin for Hanzo has already been confirmed.
More information about the skins can be found in this post.
More Emotes – The Dances are Coming!
Like skins, new emotes are also a fixed part of every major event. With a new type of emotes, Blizzard is following an old company tradition and is also adding dances in Overwatch. The first dance animations of Sombra, Lúcio, Zenyatta, and Symmetra have already been teased. Here’s a first impression:
New Maps for the Anniversary
The gameplay highlight of the anniversary event in Overwatch will likely be the new game mode. This is currently being called Arena, as Blizzard has exclusively created 3 arena maps for it.
These take place on the Temple of Anubis, Dorado, and Eichenwalde, each in a modified and thus significantly smaller form. What exactly this mode will entail is still open, but players can receive titles like “Gladiator,” “Challenger,” and others from the announcer voice Athena.
Details about the maps can be found in this post.
Free Overwatch Weekend
Aside from that, there are also some minor improvements to the game. With the introductory patch of the anniversary the classic loot boxes are getting revamped and new emotes will be added – Sombra and Orisa will receive a “Sitting” emote, for example.
In connection with the anniversary, there will also be a weekend where Overwatch can be played for free on all platforms. From May 26 (8:00 PM) to May 30 at 9:00 AM, everyone can check out the shooter for free. Anyone looking to recruit friends should take advantage of this time!
More information about the Free2Play event can be found here.
By the way, the 4th season of Overwatch is ending soon – all details about it can be found here.
