Blizzard
Last week, Blizzard answered the susurrous rising from Overwatch fans wondering whether the studio would celebrate the game's one-year anniversary: Yes, an event was in the works. (And there was much rejoicing.) To commemorate the game's arrival exactly a year ago, and in recognition of its wild critical and commercial success, Overwatch is launching a new event and releasing a Game of the Year edition for $40. But if you need convincing, the game will be free to play this weekend.
Like each of the half-dozen events in the game's first year, Overwatch: Anniversary will run a few weeks offering exclusive new skins, sprays, emotes and other tchotchkes in every loot box until it ends on June 12th. After that, it's unclear when said items will be available again, as previous event exclusives haven't returned. And if you think the last round of limited-time skins was impressive, wait til you see Super Sentai Green Ranger Genji, dapper Lucio and Cyberlegionary Zarya.
The event also brings three new Arena maps to the game: Necropolis, Castillo and Black Forest. All take design cues from existing levels but are scaled down for the Arcade modes up to 3v3. If you've been ignoring the weekly Brawls to avoid having to play on the Arena's only level prior to this update, Arctic Base, your ship has come in.
If you haven't bought Overwatch yet, Blizzard's replaced its Origins edition of the game with a Game of the Year version for $40. It contains all the goodies that the former edition had, including exclusive skins and Overwatch-themed ornamental items for Diablo 3, Starcraft 2 and Hearthstone along with unlocking the character Tracer in Heroes of the Storm -- plus ten loot boxes to start filling out your Overwatch collection. The regular version of the game will also get discounted to $30 and players with the core game can upgrade to the GOTY edition for $10, but buy soon: The sale ends on June 5th.