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This April 12, Overwatch Has A Serious Announcement To Make

Edwin Kee (news@gospelherald.com) Apr 05, 2017 11:14 AM EDT

Attention, all of you Overwatch fans! There will be a new Overwatch announcement this April 12 -- at the very least, this is what has been teased based on Blizzard’s Twitter account. Via the official Blizzard Twitter account for Australia and New Zealand, a short video was posted with the accompanying message: "Initiating archive declassification… Mission files unlock: 12 April." It does seem to imply a brand new Tracer skin as well as a QR code. No doubt that many would have been quick on the double to scan the QR code and see where it brings them, but unfortunately, it remains unreadable. No prizes for guessing when will the QR code be readable, and our sixth sense tells us it would be on 12 April.

Twitter was not the only means where this teaser was shown, as it was also posted on Facebook -- only to be removed not too long after. Perhaps it was put up on a premature basis? Well, thankfully there has been a YouTube mirror of the footage put up already, so no big loss there.


What is Overwatch?
Just in case you do not know what Overwatch is all about, here is a quick summary. Overwatch comes in the form of a highly stylized team-based shooter that has been set on earth, with the timeline being put forward as some time in the near future. In this world, there will be bold characters who boast of some really superhuman abilities who will duke it out against one another on mind blowing battlegrounds. This is an epic conflict that spans the entire globe, and no one else is spared.

What is the April 12 announcement all about?
Needless to say, Overwatch fans and industry watchers alike are already peering into the possibilities that this announcement will bring. For instance, there are ability icons of seven heroes that can be identified, in addition to seeing the reference to King's Row which invokes a map in the game. This happens to be a map that was one of the first created for the game was made available in its beta in 2016.

Not only that, there is also a rotating 3D model of Tracer which was shown albeit but for a moment. With a flyer or a promotional poster of sorts that points to a “mandatory robot registration,” this would in all probability be a build up to the Omnic Crisis that hails from Overwatch's history and back story. It was in 2016 that there was an animated short known as “Alive” shown, where it showcased the assassination of Mondatta in addition to a fistifucffs that happened between Tracer and Widowmaker. Perhaps the words “archive declassification” might point to this particular event.

Assuming that is the train of thought taken, this might be the stepping ground for an in-lore event, or perhaps even a kind of story mode, and for others, a mission set. Do bear in mind that all of these will remain purely speculation until April 12 comes around. That should be less than a week of waiting left to go, so be patient!