This is ‘Overwatch,’ a team-based shooter from the makers of ‘World of Warcraft’

Blizzcon, the annual convention put together by developer Blizzard (Starcraft, Diablo, World of Warcraft), typically has a major announcement. This year, it’s a big one: Overwatch, its first new property in 17 years. The visuals are very Pixar-esque, at least from the teaser trailer, but literally nothing else is known right now.

Overwatch is a “team based multiplayer shooter,” which sounds awfully like a reworked version of its long-in-development (and recently-canceled) project Titan. Based on the gameplay footage, it’s Blizzard’s version of Team Fortress 2 — Valve’s still-popular 2007 team-based shooter — with highly stylized, anachronistic, anthropomorphic characters. The stages look equally diverse and the action very frenzied. In a later panel, Blizzard confirmed there’ll be six players each side and maps are objective-based. There is no deathmatch mode.

Blizzard said this game is due out “sooner than you think,” but it hasn’t said when yet. No word yet on what platform, although Blizzcon attendees will be able to try it out on PC. A beta is coming next year — you can sign up here.

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