Blizzard's Next Big Plans For Overwatch Might Be Revealed At GDC 2017

Blizzard is rolling out some big changes for its very popular first-person shooter game, Overwatch. The game studio has just rolled out a new update on the game's public test region, which allows players to try out upcoming changes to the game.

The Numbani Incident

Recently, Blizzard has shared on official Overwatch Twitter account a new teaser image, showing a location that Overwatch players are intimately familiar with. But there's something scary happened at one particular area of the Numbani map, the airport terminal appears to have been severely damaged, according to the official Overwatch Twitter account.

As mentioned earlier by gaming website IGN, the OR15 defense units appear to have been destroyed by still an unidentified assailant at Numbani airport. Fortunately, no civilian casualties were reported in the said confrontation.

The recently shared tease is a follow-up to another teaser that shared earlier this week when Blizzard introduced to the world an 11-year-old robotics and an AI prodigy from Numbani, Efi Oladele. Many Overwatch players have been speculating that the next playable Overwatch character would be Doomfist.

However, game director Jeff Kaplan appeared to have poured a cold water on that theory as Blizzard finally confirmed that Doomfist would not be the next playable Overwatch hero, ending the month-long speculations and rumors about Doomfist.

Blizzard will continue to drop hints about who will be the next Overwatch hero. One big speculation that has surfaced recently involves Anchora, a four-legged robot that has already appeared in the background of several Overwatch trailers. This theory has come from a recent Reddit post, which suggested that the next Overwatch character would be a female omnic quadruped."

The crowd would learn more about this next Overwatch character at the upcoming big gaming expo in San Francisco next week.

Overwatch GDC Schedule: What To Expect From The Big Gaming Expo

Fans of the Blizzard's first-person shooter game should tune into the upcoming GDC next week, as Blizzard announces its plans for the Game Developer Conference (GDC) next week in San Francisco. The Irvine-based game developer will be holding a total of 9 dedicated Overwatch talks, so expect some big reveal here, including the true identity of the upcoming Overwatch hero.

According to The Express, the big gaming event will start on February 27 and will be focusing more on how Blizzard maintains the sense of characters in its first-person shooter game. But it still not sure if Blizzard will finally unveil to the world the true identity of the next Overwatch hero or new maps during the big gaming expo, but the company could drop some big hints.

The big Overwatch event will take place on March 3. Here, Blizzard will be hosting some sort of talk show or gaming event. The Blizzard's Overwatch GDC Schedule will include the following gaming topics and activities:

• Animation Bootcamp (February 27)
• Engineering Scalability (March 1)
• Overwatch Gameplay Architecture and Netcode (March 1)
• Overwatch Networking Scripted Weapons and Abilities (March 1)
• The Data Building Pipeline of Overwatch (March 1)
• The Art of Overwatch: Evolving Legacy (March 1)
• Replay Technology In Overwatch (March 2)
• The Animation Pipeline of Overwatch (March 2)
• Thinking Globally (March 3).

Meanwhile, there's have been some speculation that Blizzard might discuss plans to bring guilds and clans to the first-person shooter game. Overwatch Game director Jeff Kaplan has already hinted possible works on a clan/guild system, however, there still no official words on the clan system.

But Kaplan has recently dropped a hint on the Overwatch forums, after reading fans' comment that this would be the best single thing Blizzard must do to improve its first-person shooter game. Kaplan made a good response after reading the fans' message, saying that the entire Overwatch team would be very excited to work on such thing.

Analysts believe that a clan system would make a huge impact on the game because it would allow players to group together more efficiently, thus providing a new level of gaming experience.