Overwatch released three years ago, and to celebrate the occasion Blizzard has some special treats coming for the Overwatch Anniversary 2019 celebration. The most exciting addition will be the new Workshop, which was announced in late April and put on the PTR (public test realm) on PC. This is a new feature of the game that will give players the ability to create custom match rules including what the winning conditions are and how fast the characters move during gameplay. These customized rules will be shareable by giving out a unique code to your friends. Coming with the Overwatch update is the ability to also share the tweaked game modes with the whole player base, so everyone can get in on the action. On the blog post describing the update, the developers detail that they plan on continuing to improve on the workshop so players can report issues or suggest improvements over on the Overwatch forums.
This patch will also bring with it a few new items. New legendary and epic skins can be acquired for the game’s characters, such as a Gargoyle outfit for Winston and Carbon Fiber skin for Doomfist (seen below). If you have missed items exclusive to past events, which we wouldn’t blame you for, because there have been a lot, they can be purchased using in-game credits or found in loot boxes. The Arcade mode will also allow players to jump back in time and test themselves in a previously released brawl. The game will update daily throughout the Overwatch Anniversary 2019 event so new challenges will come frequently.
Those are the major changes coming with the new Overwatch patch, but there will be a couple of other, minor fixes to the game. If players controlling Baptiste throw an immortality field that lands on a moving platform, the field will now move with the platform. Wrecking Ball mains will be excited to know that the same tweak has been made to any mines they throw. Genji and Hanzo can now climb some of those pesky pillars on the Havana map that they were unable to before.
Looks like there are still plenty of reasons to jump back into Overwatch, especially with all the creations that will be coming thanks to the new Workshop. We can’t wait to see what the community comes up with! Anyone who has never purchased the game before can take advantage of a free week-long trial starting today. Be sure to let us know what you see that is worth watching out for.
