Blizzard Confirms Overwatch Anniversary Event, Game of the Year Edition, and New Arena Maps

The Overwatch Anniversary Event will take place from May 23 to June 12 according to a tweet from the official Overwatch account. Much like past events around real-life festivities such as Christmas or in-game scenarios like Uprising, expect custom game modes and special loot boxes carrying special Overwatch Anniversary Event skins, sprays, highlight intros, emotes, victory poses, player icons, and voice lines. 

In addition to this, there will be new maps for Arena mode, which debuted with the Overwatch Christmas event. These are variations on existing ones - Dorado, Eichenwalde, and Anubis to be specific.

What's more is that Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan has confirmed that in addition to Overwatch Anniversary Event loot, new standard loot will be added as well. These would include laughing and sitting emotes for post-release characters such as Sombra and Orisa. Kaplan stated that the developers wanted to give fans new cosmetic items that weren't restricted to special events alone.

Finally, Blizzard also announced the Overwatch Game of the Year Edition that was leaked last week. Official details as follows:

• 10 bonus Overwatch loot boxes 
• Overwatch hero skins 
• Heroes of the Storm Tracer hero 
• World of Warcraft baby Winston pet 
• Diablo 3 Mercy's Wings 
• StarCraft 2 in-game portraits and a Hearthstone card pack 

For what it’s worth, we found Overwatch to be one of 2016’s best games. There are various heroes to choose from, near perfect gameplay, and the promise of extended support and free content, most of which Blizzard has made good on so far. Although the Overwatch: Game of the Year Edition seems like a threadbare inclusion.