Overwatch is at present marking its 10th anniversary, however gamers haven’t essentially been within the temper to rejoice. With a lot of the fanbase anticipating extra from the in-game occasion, the backlash has put a slight halt to the momentum Blizzard’s shooter had constructed up since its removing of the “2” and rebrand again to Overwatch.
When the anniversary occasion began, gamers had been required to sink a variety of time into finishing matches and aims so as to earn loot bins containing new colorways and outdated skins. That grind for underwhelming loot isn’t precisely what long-term followers (equivalent to myself) had been anticipating to mark such a milestone.
To the developer’s credit score, a swift response was issued by recreation director Aaron Keller on social media, who said that rewards can be elevated and simpler to receive in weeks two and three of the occasion, guaranteeing gamers a minimal of 10 legendary skins every.
Wanting forward, we’re additionally planning an extra season-long occasion in Season 3 with much more rewards, increasing the bottom degree of earnable rewards in our weekly Play N Video games tracker, whereas engaged on different concepts for later in the 12 months. 6/8
— Aaron Keller (@aaronkellerOW) May 15, 2026
However, for some, that also doesn’t really feel fairly sufficient for the celebration of Overwatch’s 10th birthday. A problem compounded by jealous eyes trying on the raft of recent skins and rewards for Chinese language gamers to mark the identical event.
That’s one thing Overwatch normal supervisor and head of stay video games and cellular growth at Blizzard, Walter Kong, is conscious of and defined to IGN in an interview. “Yeah, I feel with the advantage of hindsight, it’s one thing the place we had to recalibrate, and we needed to take motion pretty shortly, therefore the changes we made to the occasion,” mentioned Kong.
“Simply the character of growth is that a variety of the construction of those occasions comes collectively over fairly a time frame,” he continued. “So there are some limits to how we will pivot, however as we noticed the suggestions coming in and we sat across the desk, we did imagine that there was a necessity to recalibrate, however we’re trying on the 10th anniversary as extra than simply this present occasion. We wish this 12 months to actually be a chance to rejoice Overwatch’s 10th anniversary. And I feel even going again to Season 1, the ambition to launch 10 Heroes within the 12 months was very a lot within the context of the 10th anniversary, and we’ll actually be doing extra in the course of the 12 months to remind gamers that we’re very grateful for simply the continued engagement with our recreation.”
As for the explanation why Chinese language gamers obtain unique content material unavailable to the remainder of the world, it’s all down to Blizzard’s relationship with NetEase in that a part of the world. “I might say that a part of it’s associated to our partnership construction with NetEase,” Kong defined.
“I feel NetEase has the duty of publishing our recreation in China, and a part of their method is to do issues which might be particular to that market,” he added. “And the method that we would like to take is to make it possible for our recreation makes gamers really feel cared for, regardless of the market. And I feel we fell wanting the mark with this present occasion, however it does imply that as we glance ahead to future occasions and activations, now we have a really particular view that ‘Is that this simply the suitable manner to run the occasion?’, and from the angle of holistically, ‘How do issues stability out?”
Overwatch has seen considerably of a resurgence lately, following the announcement that the sport was dropping its “2” and including 10 new heroes sooner or later. This 12 months will see Overwatch enter a “new, story-driven period” with a year-long narrative and a serious overhaul, which started with the launch of Season 1 on February 10. Blizzard, and Overwatch’s fanbase, will each be hoping this occasion is a minor bump within the street for a recreation that’s in pretty much as good a spot because it has been for a few years now.
That optimism is shared by Kong, who feels good about each the current and way forward for the hero shooter. “I’ll say that I’m pleased with the place the sport is immediately,” he said. “I feel that from only a play expertise perspective, it is robust. It has been refined over such a time frame, and simply our method to the sport has turn into extra oriented to an nearly collaborative course of with our gamers, particularly in the previous few years. So I am pleased with the place the sport is immediately, and I am additionally very, very optimistic concerning the future, not only for the sport however for simply the franchise general.”
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can primarily be discovered skulking round open world video games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing on the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Comply with him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.