Overwatch is currently marking its 10th anniversary, but players haven’t necessarily been in the mood to celebrate. With much of the fanbase expecting more from the in-game event, the backlash has put a slight halt to the momentum Blizzard’s shooter had built up since its removal of the “2” and rebrand back to Overwatch.
When the anniversary event started, players were required to sink a lot of time into completing matches and objectives in order to earn loot boxes containing new colorways and old skins. That grind for underwhelming loot isn’t exactly what long-term fans (such as myself) were expecting to mark such a milestone.
To the developer’s credit, a swift response was issued by game director Aaron Keller on social media, who stated that rewards would be increased and easier to obtain in weeks two and three of the event, guaranteeing players a minimum of 10 legendary skins each.
Looking ahead, we’re also planning an additional season-long event in Season 3 with even more rewards, expanding the base level of earnable rewards in our weekly Play N Games tracker, while working on other ideas for later in the year. 6/8
— Aaron Keller (@aaronkellerOW) May 15, 2026
But, for some, that still doesn’t feel quite enough for the celebration of Overwatch’s 10th birthday. An issue compounded by jealous eyes looking at the raft of new skins and rewards for Chinese players to mark the same occasion.
That’s something Overwatch general manager and head of live games and mobile development at Blizzard, Walter Kong, is aware of and explained to IGN in an interview. “Yeah, I think with the benefit of hindsight, it is something where we had to recalibrate, and we wanted to take action fairly quickly, hence the adjustments we made to the event,” said Kong.
“Just the nature of development is that a lot of the structure of these events comes together over quite a period of time,” he continued. “So there are some limits to how we can pivot, but as we saw the feedback coming in and we sat around the table, we did believe that there was a need to recalibrate, but we're looking at the 10th anniversary as more than just this current event. We want this year to really be an opportunity to celebrate Overwatch's 10th anniversary. And I think even going back to Season 1, the ambition to release 10 Heroes in the year was very much in the context of the 10th anniversary, and we'll certainly be doing more during the year to remind players that we're very grateful for just the continued engagement with our game.”
As for the reason why Chinese players receive exclusive content unavailable to the rest of the world, it’s all down to Blizzard’s relationship with NetEase in that part of the world. “I would say that part of it is related to our partnership structure with NetEase,” Kong explained.
“I think NetEase has the responsibility of publishing our game in China, and part of their approach is to do things that are specific to that market,” he added. “And the approach that we want to take is to make sure that our game makes players feel cared for, no matter the market. And I think we fell short of the mark with this current event, but it does mean that as we look forward to future events and activations, we have a very specific view that ‘Is this just the right way to run the event?’, and from the perspective of holistically, ‘How do things balance out?”
Overwatch has seen somewhat of a resurgence recently, following the announcement that the game was dropping its "2" and adding 10 new heroes in the future. This year will see Overwatch enter a "new, story-driven era" with a year-long narrative and a major overhaul, which began with the launch of Season 1 on February 10. Blizzard, and Overwatch’s fanbase, will both be hoping this event is a minor bump in the road for a game that’s in as good a place as it has been for many years now.
That optimism is shared by Kong, who feels good about both the present and future of the hero shooter. “I will say that I am happy with where the game is today,” he stated. “I think that from just a play experience perspective, it's strong. It's been refined over such a period of time, and just our approach to the game has become more oriented to an almost collaborative process with our players, especially in the last few years. So I'm happy with where the game is today, and I'm also very, very optimistic about the future, not just for the game but for just the franchise overall.”
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.
