The Overwatch Anniversary event will be returning on May 22, 2018, according to a press release from Blizzard Entertainment.
Overwatch Anniversary is a yearly event for Blizzard's first-person shooter Overwatch that celebrates the release of the game. Last year's run of the event brought with it the return of Elimination mode, three new maps for the mode, a bunch of new character skins, and a whole lot more. A somewhat controversial addition to the game was a single Epic dance emote for each of the game's characters at the time, costing the standard treble price of 750 Credits. The sheer volume of these dances along with the Legendary skins made it one of the most expensive events in-game to date. The game also had a free weekend and a sale for the first time since the holidays.
This year, Overwatch Anniversary will bring with it 50 new items including eight new Legendary skins and three Epic skins. Doomfist, Moira, and Brigitte are getting new dance emotes. A glimpse of Junkrat's new skin was made available in a video on the game's official Twitter account.
Players who log in during the event will receive one Legendary Anniversary Loot Box which will guarantee at one Legendary-quality item. In a departure from other events, this year's anniversary loot boxes will include the loot from all previous events. That's right, if you missed something from Junkenstein's Revenge or Winter Wonderland, you'll have another chance to get it very soon without having to wait until the event rolls around again. Players who purchase a 50 Loot Box Package (typically $39.99 or your regional equivalent) will also receive a bonus Legendary Anniversary Loot Box.
Aside from the loot, brawls from previous events will be making a return. If you have a hankering to play Mei's Yeti Hunt or even something as recent as Retribution, they'll be rotated daily throughout the course of the event.
Fans of Deathmatch will be happy to hear that a new map named Petra will be added to the game with the latest iteration of the Overwatch Anniversary event. Additionally, a new Competitive Deathmatch mode will debut featuring placement matches, skill tiers, and leaderboards.
As with last year, a free weekend will be taking place from May 25 through May 29. PlayStation 4 players will not require a PlayStation Plus subscription to participate, nor will PC users require anything other than the free Battle.net client. Xbox One users will, unfortunately, need to have an active Xbox Live Gold subscription to participate in the Overwatch free weekend this year.
Although a sale is not explicitly mentioned, it's reasonable to assume that the game will be discounted yet again. Players who already own it may have something new to pick up anyway - we'll be seeing the debut of the Legendary Edition of Overwatch. This new edition will include sets of Legendary, Epic, and Origin skins for a total of 15 skins with your purchase. There's not yet any word on the cost of this new edition.
It looks like the 2018 iteration of Overwatch Anniversary is going to be packed chock full of fun things to play and sweet loot to unlock. Here's hoping that they'll have fixed some of the issues with Deathmatch this time around.
What do you think of the changes made to Overwatch Anniversary? Do you think it's a good idea to revisit content from older events or would you have preferred for this to remain a standalone event of its own? What do you think will be in the Legendary Edition? Let us know in the comments below!
