20 unusual Overwatch facts. From its strange beginnings as project Titan to becoming one of Blizzard’s greatest success stories, join us as we take a look at 20 fun and unusual facts about Overwatch.
20 – Overwatch was born from the ashes of something called project Titan. Titan was in development from 2007 to 2012 when it was officially scrapped. It was to be a MMO where players alternated between day jobs while fighting as mercenary-like heroes in a global war. Blizzard said they cancelled the project when they realised it just wasn’t that fun to play.
19 – Titan’s original development team of 140 members was whittled down to just 4o. They were told they had just 6 weeks to come up with a new concept or they too would be reassigned to other projects.
18 – Some assets made the transition from Titan to Overwatch. Tracer for example was said to be a character from Titan’s jumper class. While the map Temple of Anubis also made the switch.
17 – Overwatch is Blizzard’s first new IP in 17 years. Their last, all original franchise release was Star Craft way back in 1998.
16 – Scattered throughout the game are references to Blizzard’s other IP. Some of the in game easter eggs include, on the map Temple of Anubis for example, there are Horde hieroglyphs etched into the temple, there’s a Hydrolisk skull mounted inside the first spawn point and a Murloc from World of Warcraft fame spray painted on the ship.
In the arcade on Hanamura there are loads of inter-IP references scattered about including: a game console titled Fighters of the Storm referring to Blizzard’s hugely popular MOBA Heroes of the Storm. HOTS is an interesting take on League of Legends, as you may or may not know. I’ve been actively involved in the process of trying to buy lol smurfs to get into the game. Grinding from level one sucks, and I refuse to do it – so I’m trying to buy a decent account. Other Blizzard games that have taken off alongside LoL’s clone HOTS include, a giant Jim Raynor mural from Star Craft placed just outside the arcade as well as a nod to a very old Blizzard title The Lost Vikings in an arcade machine called The Lost Vikings IV.
On the map Dorado, there’s a pinata shaped like Diablo and on Route 66 there is an menu item called Diableaux Hot Sauce
15 – In an original video preview of Widowmaker, one of her abilities when performed had an alleged ‘model error’ that increased the size of her butt.
14 – Former Blizzard employee Chris Metzen, best known for his contributions to the fictional worlds of Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo, actually voices Bastion – albeit, heavily modulated.
13 – During the creation phase, Genji and Hanzo were actually just one character. However, the more Blizzard developed Hanzo they found they kept giving him too many awesome ninja abilities so they decided to create a second character, Genji. Ultimately, the two characters ended up being brothers.
12 – Reportedly, the development team brain stormed up to 50 ultimate ability ideas for Bastion. Some included him being able to fly in the air, shooting through a shield. Another allowed him to to release a little remote control car that could be driven around within a timeframe, then when activated would fire a burst of bullets.
11 – According to the Overwatch collector’s edition art book, that satisfying ‘hit pip’ sound that occurs when you fire on another player is actually a beer bottle being opened, modulated and played in reverse.
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