Overwatch, the upcoming team based shooter from Blizzard Entertainment, will in fact be coming to Playstation 4 and Xbox One, in addition to the PC. Blizzard confirmed the arrival to console today, with a version titled Overwatch: Origins Edition appearing in a pre-order promotion on Battle.net. It’s currently slated to arrive next spring.
It’s not clear what this Origins Edition title means exactly, and the console announcement was somewhat leaked by GameStop yesterday, so it looks like Blizzard have had to reveal the title early ahead of BlizzCon 2015, which kicks off today. GameStop had posted that they were now accepting pre-orders for a console version of the shooter, and it was listed at $60.
Kotaku and IGN followed up with local GameStop stores, who confirmed that the retailer was accepting pre-orders for the title. The name was listed internally as Overwatch: Origin Edition, which at the time had not been confirmed by Blizzard. Now, however, we have the news straight from the horse’s mouth.
With a roster of characters that includes robo-monks, cowboys, and super intelligent gorillas, Overwatch has a unique and fun feel, and certainly has much more color and character than your average FPS. Seemingly seeking to capture a slice of that Team Fortress 2 crowd, if there is any studio you can trust to assert their dominance over a genre, it’s Blizzard.
Console players would likely want in on this crazy action, so it’s a smart move to bring it to Xbox One and Playstation 4. While many might have terrible memories of Blizzard’s porting work in the form of Starcraft 64 way back when, their recent success with releasing Diablo III across current and previous gen consoles show that they know how to make a PC title work on a console interface.
In small print on the leaked Overwatch: Origins Edition poster, it states that the game will arrive on, or before June 21 2016, for Xbox One, Playstation 4, and PC. When we have more confirmation on that, we’ll be sure to let you know.