Overwatch 2 goes full Fortnite by revealing its mysterious ARG character is actually John Cena

Overwatch 2's guest, John Cena — (Image credit: Blizzard)

Overwatch 2 has been teasing the launch of its upcoming PvE missions with an ARG featuring a mysterious hacker called the Enigma, and yes - his name is, in fact, John Cena.

The reveal came as part of another, well, staged 'hack' of various streamers, leading up to a live action video where Cena, as Enigma, says "I need to get a message out to our heroes. Null Sector’s forces are attacking Rio, Gothenburg, and Toronto. I need reinforcements in these locations." All that is presumably setting the stage for the story missions set to launch with Invasion on August 10.

It's unclear what the extent of Cena's role in Overwatch 2 will be, but in a press release, Blizzard says players should expect to see a whole lot more of him in the days leading up to Invasion. "It’s been fun seeing the Overwatch community try to put a face to The Enigma," Cena says in a press release. "Sometimes a face you can’t see is just what the world needs to sound the alarm of a looming, worldwide threat."

If the idea of a wrestler-turned-actor showing up as a new character in a big online game to promote a major event sounds familiar, well, the exact same thing happened with The Rock in Fortnite. Though that was a much longer-term teaser campaign that seemed to actually have the time to get the community invested in the reveal.

The fortunes of Overwatch 2 are a bit less than certain these days, with the looming threat of an end to Overwatch League hanging over a lot of discussion around the game right now. That's on top of ongoing disappointment in the dramatic reduction in scope of the PvE mode the game was supposed to be built around. Here's hoping Invasion is just what the game needs to build a little positive momentum. After all, what other game without 'WWE' in the title has a connection to John Cena?

Overwatch 2 is coming to Steam, and other Blizzard games are set to follow.

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.