It’s snowing in King’s Row: ‘Overwatch’ teases holiday event

By Brad Bourque December 7, 2016

overwatch year of the rooster 15m — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Amid a wintry storm of data-mined updates and high expectations, Blizzard has officially confirmed that there will be an Overwatch holiday event, and that it will begin on December 13. The event follows in the footsteps of popular Halloween and “Summer Games” timed events.

The event launch was confirmed with a Tweet from the official Overwatch Twitter account. It starts with a recognizable shot of the King’s Row map, as snow falls gently to the ground, leaving piles in front of shop windows.

You're invited! pic.twitter.com/MQZPZOW4Y1

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) December 6, 2016

So what will Overwatch’s holiday event entail? There are no confirmed details, but we can make a few educated guesses based on previous events. We’ll certainly see some holiday-themed cosmetics, and the idea of Zenyatta throwing glass ornaments is one that’s been kicking around for a while. During the first “Summer Games” event, players could only earn new cosmetics by finding them randomly in themed loot boxes, which were only available during the event. For Halloween, Blizzard made the timely cosmetics available for purchase with credits, but at higher prices.

There’s also likely to be a brawl to go along with the festivities. Originally, the game only featured modes that pitted players against each other, but the Halloween’s event introduced a new mode where game mode where four players defended a point from AI enemies. Which we’ll see this time around is anyone’s guess.

If the tweet is any indication, there may also be modifications to existing maps like King’s Row. We saw similar additions, including extra candles and jack-o’-lanterns, decorating maps throughout the Halloween event, although snow has the potential for more substantial gameplay changes.

Or it might just be slight cosmetic changes and some new costumes. Either way, the event launches on Tuesday, December 13, so expect to see changes go live after the weekly reset that morning. Data miners found some of the data for the event, including a holiday version of the Overwatch theme song, in the last update, but there will need to be another with the rest of the puzzle.

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Brad Bourque is a native Portlander, devout nerd, and craft beer enthusiast. He studied creative writing at Willamette…

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