Overwatch's really cool animated shorts don't drop nearly as frequently as they used to, but game director Aaron Keller reckons they need to make a comeback before Blizzard Entertainment can claim the shooter is "firing on all cylinders."
If you cast your mind back to a time when the name Overwatch didn't split the internet in two, you might remember that Blizzard would often drop sick, Pixar-style animated short films to introduce new characters and flesh out the game's superhero world. In comparison, Overwatch 2 has only really gotten a couple shorts in the last few years.
Things might be changing soon, though. Speaking to streamer Jay3, Aaron Keller said "one of the things we hear our players talk about a lot online is it kinda feels like Overwatch has dropped the ball when it comes to story and lore." He even acknowledged that the team "used to put a few more of the big animated shorts out than we do nowadays."
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Animated shorts didn't just disappear spontaneously – Keller also revealed what you might have already been able to guess: "We did have a big plan to go after story in the game, that was the PvE with the campaign… that didn't work out."
Blizzard essentially sold the idea of Overwatch 2 with the promise of an expansive co-op campaign that would properly move the story forward. That portion of the game swelled to a point that the team simply couldn't bring it all together, leading to its cancelation.
"So there was kind of a reset moment for us when that happened," Keller said.
"We would like to get back to it. One of the best parts of Overwatch is the universe and characters," continued Keller. "For me, personally, for us to say that Overwatch 2 is firing on all cylinders, we need to have some of those [shorts] come back."
Elsewhere in the livestream, when asked about a potential TV show, the director said "we would love to do that."
Aye, aye. Anyone with even a passing interest in Overwatch would probably eat up a series with the same production values as, say, the sequel's announcement cinematic.
For what it's worth, Blizzard Entertainment did give OW fans some hope by emphasizing the entertainment in its name.
And Netflix adaptations of StarCraft and Overwatch actually were in production at one point – before Activision Blizzard sued the streaming giant, of course, so it's definitely a possibility.
Almost 200 members of Blizzard's Overwatch 2 team have unionized: "The biggest issue was the layoffs at the beginning of 2024"
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