The next Overwatch hero is Sigma the beefy scientist - watch his origin reveal here

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It looks like Sigma uses gravity abilities, possibly powered by a black hole

On the heels of some mysterious teasers - one of which deleted Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan from existence - today Blizzard revealed the origin story of the next Overwatch hero, Sigma. The graphic novel-style short explores Sigma's obsession with gravity and his goal of harnessing the power of a black hole. Unsurprisingly, this experiment goes awry, but on top of making him mentally unstable, it also seems to have given Sigma gravity powers. 

Blizzard described Sigma as an "eccentric astrophysicist who hopes to unlock the secrets of the universe," and teased that he is "unaware he's been turning into a living weapon." Sigma's in-game model is briefly shown at the end of today's origin story reveal, and he certainly looks like a living weapon. His bulky suit seems to enable him to control miniature black holes, and you can bet gravity will be the central theme of his abilities. 

As PC Gamer reports, players have been speculating about Sigma's abilities ever since the release of a previous teaser scrawled with physics equations. The formulas and equations shown, coupled with the fact that Sigma is named after a math symbol indicating summation, led players like Redditor ztokdo to hypothesize that Sigma could bend shots around corners, increase or decrease the effects of gravity in an area or on a target, or even absorb and rebound enemy fire. These abilities are purely speculative, but they fit with Sigma's themes and origins, and they sound mighty cool. 

We'll see more of Sigma soon. For now, catch up on all the challenges and rewards available in the Overwatch Summer Games 2019.  

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.