Blizzard Entertainment has officially announced the long-suspected Overwatch Anniversary event will begin on May 23, 2017 via the game's official Twitter. In addition to this upcoming event, a free weekend will be taking place from May 26-May 29, 2017 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. No specific details about the event or any of the cosmetic goodies have been announced as of yet. For the moment, Blizzard has released a retrospective video titled Thank You, Heroes! that shows off the in-game events, fan meet-ups, cosplay, fanart, and more from the game's first year of operation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-nf4nqdZRA
The Overwatch Anniversary event was considered a possibility until it was all but confirmed after information about "Anniversary Loot Boxes" was datamined from the Xbox Store. Players had speculated that the event would begin on Tuesday, May 16th as the datamined information showed the end date as June 5th, 2017. For one reason or another, it appears that the end date has changed to June 12th; this means that there may have been some delay behind-the-scenes that resulted in the event being pushed back.
As for the free weekend, it's set to begin on May 26, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific Time and end on May 29 at 11:59 PM Pacific Time. The event will be available for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 gamers with no special sign-up codes or anything of that sort; players will just need an Internet connection and the proper account set up for their respective platforms. PC players can grab the Battle.Net client to play for free, but Xbox One and PlayStation 4 players will need either an Xbox Live Gold or PlayStation Plus membership, respectively.
What gameplay mode do you think will be the centerpiece of the upcoming Overwatch Anniversary event? Which characters do you hope will get a little love in the cosmetics department? Do you think that Blizzard Entertainment has a new hero in store for us? Let us know in the comments below!
