World of Warcraft Launches Overwatch-Themed Event
By Denny Connolly 04 January 2017
World of Warcraft gives MMO players a chance to throw down against some ‘Ogrewatch’ bosses with very similar names, abilities, and looks as Overwatch characters.
World of Warcraft’s latest expansion continues to grow with each new patch and fans of the MMO certainly aren’t complaining. Blizzard has big plans for Azeroth’s heroes questing through The Broken Isles and the latest details on patch 7.1.5 reveals some interesting details on some new Brawler’s Guild bosses. The game mode offers World of Warcraft players a chance to face off against some Overwatch-inspired characters that would probably be considered copyright infringement if it was anyone but Blizzard creating them.
A combination of information from public test realms and patch datamining reveals that the return of the Brawler’s Guild feature brings a series of bosses that are a reference to Blizzard’s FPS Overwatch. Although characters from WoW and Overwatch only ever really meet in the Heroes of the Storm Nexus, this WoW game mode will give players the chance to face off against very similar characters if they can reach a high enough rank.
When Brawler’s Guild participants arrive at Rank 6, a trio of bosses and their abilities should start to ring some bells. Here are the details as described by wowhead…
“Hudson, Dupree, Stuffshrew. This trio is a reference to Blizzard’s popular game Overwatch. Hudson, a tribute to the gorilla Winston, puts up Barrier Projector and fires Tesla Cannon and Jump Pack. Dupree, a tribute to the cowboy McCree, casts High Noon. Stuffshrew, a tribute to Junkrat, casts Maniacal Laugh. Kill Dupree before High Noon goes off, disrupt Hudson’s barrier, and avoid Stuffshrew’s bombs.”
The datamined information suggests that WoW versions of Tracer (Blinker), Roadhog (Boargut), Reaper (Render), and Rhinehardt (Steingardt) are all lined up for future boss rotations. The ‘Ogrewatch’ characters are a fun addition to Brawler’s Guild and follow in a long tradition of WoW referencing other games, movies, and pop culture icons. Blizzard is usually making references to things like Star Wars, Back to the Future, or other properties that don’t relate to its own games, but it’s pretty fun to see the developers poke fun at their own IP once in a while too.
Although some players are looking to escape back to vanilla WoW with legacy servers, Legion was well-reviewed and seems to have revitalized Blizzard’s MMO community. Incoming patches will add new quest lines and flying to The Broken Isles in addition to the Brawler’s Guild updates, so it sounds like WoW may be in for another strong year.
What do you think about the nod to Overwatch in WoW? Let us know in the comments.
World of Warcraft: Legion is available now. The Brawler’s Guild feature will return in patch 7.1.5.
