The next big thing from Blizzard – this is apart from the already hugely successful Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm and the latest expansion for StarCraft 2 – is a first-person shooter called Overwatch. The game could also be coming to the Xbox One and PS4, if GameStop is anything to go by.
Kotaku did a short write-up on the possibility of Overwatch appearing on Sony and Microsoft's eighth generation home consoles, stating that after speaking with a GameStop clerk in New York, they revealed that they were taking pre-orders on Overwatch. The game is supposedly going to sell for $60 on the Xbox One and PS4, even though it's claimed to be free-to-play on PC.
References to Heroes of the Storm's physical bundle packs were made as a likely possibility for the price-tag on a home console version of Overwatch. This is the likely thing that will happen given that Valve also has physical Steam cards available at GameStop; and other companies have been selling cash shop cards in various retail outlets for the past decade, so this shouldn't be too surprising. Heck, Nexon was one of the first to start offering cash shop cards in places like GameStop, Wal-Mart, and other grocery and pharmacy outlets.
Even if Overwatch retains a free-to-play atmosphere on PC it wouldn't be shocking if the console versions having a $60 price-tag could simply mean that they come with variety of cash shop characters, trinkets, buffs or abilities. Then again, if the game is truly free-to-play expect to see a bunch of cosmetic outfits for each of the characters. Console gamers could end up seeing the price of entry for the title subsidized through free cosmetics.
Blizzard is likely to make a big announcement about the game at BlizzCon given that they recently conducted a beta test for the game to stress the servers and see how well each of the characters are balanced against each other.
A lot of people have been high up on the character Tracer, given her ability to zip and zoop around the arena at blazingly fast speeds. Few other characters can keep up with her and her ability to practically teleport around the arena. Characters like Hanzo and Widowmaker provide decent counter-balances to speedy characters like Tracer.
The Pixar-like design of the characters in Overwatch and the colorful thematic elements lend themselves well to being an all-ages kind of game, despite its violent nature. I wouldn't be surprised if a movie studio tapped the property for a movie sometime down the line if it turns out to be successful.
Of course, one way of tapping into that success is if the game could reach an even broader audience by releasing on home consoles. We'll see if the GameStop clerk was right about the stores opening up pre-orders for the Xbox One and PS4 versions of the title or if it's all just hot air.
BlizzCon gets underway this weekend on November 6th and will last up until November 7th in Anaheim, California. We'll see if Blizzard confirms or denies the game's existence on home consoles, as well as what the final pricing structure will be like for Overwatch.
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