Blizzard posted a developer update today in which game director Jeff Kaplan and lead engineer Tim Ford discussed the
upcoming Overwatch event. Previously dubbed
Overwatch: Uprising, Blizzard has decided to rename the event to
Overwatch Archives - and there's a very important reason for the name change.
"We're really changing the event this year also as a whole," explained Kaplan in today's developer update.
"Last year was entirely focused on Uprising. This year, we're calling the event Overwatch Archives. The idea there is that there are all of these cool past moments in Overwatch history. By going back into the Archives we can relive those. Uprising was just one of those events."
Uprising will once again return this year as both Story Mode and All Heroes. In Story Mode, you travel back in time through the Archives and experience Tracer's first mission as she, Mercy, Reinhardt, and Torbjörn fight through the streets of King's Row to quell an uprising led by Null Sector. All Heroes mode is essentially the same thing except you can play as any of the game's characters.
But, as Kaplan teased in the developer update, there's more to Overwatch Archives this year than just the Uprising event. In fact, Blizzard even
hinted at additional missions in a recent video which briefly showed "Archives File 0274."
Kaplan continued:
"In addition to bringing Uprising Story Mode and Uprising All Heroes back, there's also going to be more content and more parts of the event that we're going to talk about later."
In addition to these new modes,
Overwatch Archives will feature more loot. All of the old Uprising content will return, plus brand new content - including a skin for one of the Shimada brothers.
Overwatch Archives will return April 10 but stick around this week and Blizzard promises more details.