Edit: The update is live! Here is a link to the blizzard article, which features all the goodies you can get during this limited time event, and info on the three new arena maps. (I kinda wish they would put some new permanent items in the game though... was kinda hoping this would be the time they did it.) Logging in gets you one free loot box.

It’s been a year since the super duper hit Overwatch came out, and Blizzard is celebrating. You might already know, but May 23 is the day you’ll get access to new skins, dance emotes, and 3 new (3v3/1v1) arena maps. New voice lines will be included as well. Here's a link to the Polygon story. There you can see some of the new emotes and skins that I couldn't embed in this post.

Not a lot to go on from the teaser, but it's always exciting getting new maps.

Blizzard is also running a free Overwatch weekend for Pc, Ps4 and Xbox one between May 26-29. So if you haven't tried out the game up till now, it's a great time to jump in. Here's a quote from Blizzard...

"For this free weekend, we’re making Overwatch’s full roster of heroes and maps available for play in a variety of modes, including Quick Play, Custom Games, and the latest Weekly Brawl," reads a Blizzard post.

"Players will also be able to level up, earn Loot Boxes, and unlock a variety of different customization options. If players decide to purchase a copy of Overwatch after the free weekend, they’ll get to keep any progress made during the weekend."

I've stuck with it pretty regularly over the past year and I'm still having a great time. It's become my go to game at this point. From what I can tell, people have either had their fill and quit a month or so in, never to touch it again or they stuck with it indefinitely (like me). It's super interesting in retrospect to remember this was all a leftover from that Titan MMO. What could that thing have really been? Although as someone who's not really that big into MMO's, I'm kinda glad Overwatch was the end result. I'm sure we'll see a lot more content over the next year. Blizzard has been pretty reliable on releasing new content on schedule. Maybe we'll even get Doomfist. (Crossing my fingers he really will be voiced by Terry Crews)

I'll also add that season 4 competitive is ending near the end of the month. Season 5 will happen sooner rather than later it seems. They usually have a week downtime between seasons. I've included another quote directly from Blizzard on the topic.

"We are indeed adding a countdown to the current competitive season's end in an upcoming patch.

"In the meantime, I can let you know that Season 4 will end on May 29 at 0:00 UTC. We decided to have a shorter amount of "offseason" time without competitive play as compared to previous seasons.

"As a reminder, the time of May 29 0:00 UTC can correspond to different time and date depending on where you live in the world. As an example, that date and time is May 28 5:00pm Pacific Daylight Time or May 28 8:00pm Eastern Daylight Time."

Are you looking forward to the new event?

Yeah, I played this game for about four weeks before I just got real tired of the same modes, the 3 characters I actually liked, and the same super similar maps over

I might hop back in but seems like not much has changed, there have only been two new maps in a whole year?

I've played this game regularly, every week at the least since launch. One of my favorite games ever and I'm happy to be apart of it.

Excited for the new stuff

@andythemez: What? I don't understand a word you just said, especially with regards to Overwatch. The levels mean nothing in the game and the cosmetics have no effect. Other than the Olympic event, every item in the game has been easily attainable.

I agree. That entire post seems like a frustrated ramble about not getting what you want in loot boxes, which you don't need to pay for ever.

The actual game is ridiculously fun, well balanced, positive, and its themes of diversity and colorful cast of characters are admirable.

This is just untrue.

Seriously, they've supported the hell out of the game. Three new characters with distinct gameplay and personalities, three new maps, along with constant and significant balance patches. This is a game I've played for hundreds of hours over a year, will probably continue playing for more to come, and it cost $40.

@nnickers: I absolutely love Overwatch but 3 characters and 3 maps in a year is a pitiful amount of content. Especially when the maps don't really matter. It looks even worse when you compare it to a game like Siege that had 8 characters and 4 maps and in that game the maps very much matter and are a lot more complex.

On top of the steady stream of optional content like costumes and such, we've seen the addition of the arcade that added several game modes since the launch of the game last year. (3v3/1v1/Capture the flag/Mystery heroes/No limits) The custom game section adds a lot of variety as well. There's some real fun stuff in there and I always love to explore what people have made. It can be a great change of pace from comp and quick play. I've had a great experience with the community on Pc, and aside from the occasional salty individual here and there, people have been very positive. In fact, one of the reasons I've stuck with it so long is because of the community.

Thanks for the free maps I guess, but a shame so much of their improvements and enhancements over this last year has just been costumes that you'd have to spend like $80-120 every event and play six hours a day every day of an event, like the Olympics, in order to get a decent amount of them let alone all.

This is straight up false. From what I've seen this past year, whenever the community speaks out about something or blizzard has noticed something being unbalanced they always work on making sure certain characters get the changes to rebalance the gameplay. If you were to go back at launch and juxtapose how it played then and now, you'd see they even changed how certain characters work like Sym, Bastion, Dva, Zenyatta, etc. There's been a reliable stream of quality of life improvements to the roster and I feel very happy with it right now. 3 character inclusions might not seem like much, but when you're working with 20+ heroes that are made into teams, each with their own roles to fulfill that can make or break a game in some cases, making sure to balance it all is important.

There's currently 22 maps in the game, and as I stated above we're about to get 3 more (Although for a specific mode). That's been more than enough variety for me to keep interest. So when you say most of the "improvements and enhancements have been given to cosmetics, I feel like that's more of a half truth. Blizzard has included a shitton of cosmetics for events, that's for sure, but it is straight up optional. So, I can't really demonize them for including a venue for optional revenue. They are in fact a business and want to make money. Nay, need to make money to keep on going. And from my experience, the business aspect has in no way affected the actual game part. That's the most important aspect when talking about F2P elements in games these days. So really, what more can you ask from them really in that respect?

More like 5. Eichenwalde, Eco Point: Antarctica, and then a control point area that includes 3 maps all under the name Oasis. They are Oasis: Gardens, University and City Center. During the holiday events we got different versions of existing maps like Hollywood, Hanamura and Kings Row. There were also limited time modes like Junkenstein's Revenge, Lucioball and Uprising. (I kinda wish they would have kept them available..., but I understand they have to make the holiday events something to look forward to.) For capture the flag they changed already existing maps to account for the mode. Nothing too drastic, but feels different enough to at least mention. So, within context of the added content as mentioned above, and on the steady schedule of content distribution, it felt a lot more fleshed out throughout the year than might seem on paper.

@themanwithnoplan: Ok thank you for the clarification. I thought there were just two new maps, Eichenwald and Oasis (I haven't played either)

I genuinely think it's a good game but it felt very repetitive, the map designs being so similar to one another was a big issue for me after I played them all. And like I said before, this gets exacerbated by only really enjoying/knowing like 3-4 of the characters.

It's just that kind of game I suppose

Continue to play Overwatch every single day, although I somewhat feel like I'm hitting my limit because I'm struggling to improve my SR above 3500 doing solo queuing without a mic. New additions are always welcome but without a regular map or new character I think I may skip season 5 and jump back in at season 6. There also seems to be some false statements in this thread, but that happens all the time with overwatch. I've been able to buy (in game) every single cosmetic I've ever wanted and then some I didn't even really want and I still have 13k coins left lol.

The past year of Overwatch has been incredible. For a game I had no interest in at launch, it sure put a crater In the hour count department.

@bobobones: I feel ya duder. It wasn't anywhere near my radar until about a week after it came out. Looking back it's probably the most time I've ever invested in any one game.

I'm there with both of you, didn't have an iota of interest until I played the beta. It's now my second favorite game of all time, with an hour count at 330 and counting

I played Overwatch a lot when it first came out, until I put it aside around two months in. I didn't regret my purchase, just felt like I had my fill of it. I came back for a few days for the Halloween event when I heard it had a PVE mode, but it was pretty repetitive and so I left again after running it a few times. I came back again a few weeks ago when I heard the Uprising event had a PVE mode and had more fun with it. I also got sucked back into the regular game again and have probably played another 30-40 hours since then (I was level 92 when I started up again, now I'm 27 with my first prestige).

Its a real good game; I just wish I was comfortable with more of the characters. I feel like I have a strong grasp on the fundamentals but my aim is below average, which means I can only play around 1/3 of the characters and be truly effective.

Haven't played since Chinese New Year's so I'm looking forward to jump back in for a bit.

i just recently started Overwatch in January. I tried it before then on one of the Xbox free weekends but it didn't grab me then for whatever reason. Now I love it. I've bought it on Xbox and PC and it's probably my favorite multiplayer game in years.

I'm looking forward to it. I didn't like the costumes for the last event so I didn't buy any of them, and last time I played I got my coins back up to 3k, so I have enough to buy whichever skin I end up liking from this event.

I'm looking forward to it as my first game event where Overwatch is concerned. I've only been playing it for two weeks, so the newness is still very much a factor for my general enjoyment of the game, and this will certainly add to it. Hopefully everybody has a good time, as that is always infectious.

Amazing game and I'm always back for events, spent zero on loot boxes but getting to the point I might just get a few this event because I felt I've had more than my moneys worth on the game so far.

The one thing that strikes me is that I feel like this game has the opposite of the time lost effect that Civilization or The Sims has. There is no "I could have sworn that I only played this for an hour, but it's 4:00 AM" situation so far that I have encountered. Instead I find myself surprised when I have played for only an hour because there was so much game packed into that hour. Perhaps I'm just accustomed to games with more down time between action sequences.

Here's a little bump now that the event is live. I've updated the op with a link showcasing all the new content in the anniversary update.

It feels longer than a year.

Roadhog and Junkrat's dances are off the chain!

Played with a friend for an hour or two. Manged to get Zarya's anniversary skin. I don't play her too much, but I still like the skin.

Seriously. Considering how deep Overwatch has cemented itself into the gaming landscape, it feels like it's been around forever.

Some real good skins in this event, and Blizzard is experimenting more what the skins changes about the character. Biggest one I've seen is that Lucio's new skin changes what his healing and speed songs sound like; also a lot of the skins have unique voice lines attached to them. Hopefully there's nothing gameplay changing about them though like Hanzo's Wolf skin, which Blizzard has still never done anything about.

Also, I'm usually not much into dance emotes, but there's actually some pretty good ones here. Reinhardt's waltz with his hammer is the standout to me.

I haven't seen the new maps since they're only for arcade gameplay modes I don't play.

Some of the skins are fantastic, soilder 76s seems a must buy and zarya is also really good, Lucio too and Genji

I played so much during the beta weekends, and then I got to level 13 after the game came out and stopped. I think it was a mix of players taking things more seriously (which is fine, it just wasn't what I was looking for) and the slower loot box rollout (even at early levels) than beta. I just felt like I wasn't getting anything and that was super disheartening. I opened my 10 free HotS lootboxes yesterday and did get one legendary amongst the dregs, but it was for one of the only characters I already have a great skin for. That said, I played a couple of rounds and remembered just how much fun it is... I wish they'd at the least adopt HotS's new loot system, where you get a chest with a guaranteed epic+ every few (5/10) levels and maybe even allow you to pay a little gold to re-roll a chest once or twice per opening.

It's a great game, but there's a ton of great games at the moment and the disappointment of not getting anything I liked in those opening hours really burned me (and I'd've taken stuff for basically any character, as I'd happily play pretty much everyone at some point going off the hours I poured into the beta).

I want all of those dances and D.Va and Lucio's skin really bad. I got a handful of dances and a couple of the legendary skins yesterday (dat new Symmetra skin). I got the credits to buy one legendary and one dance, but I'm going to hold out a bit and see if something on my wishlist drops naturally. If I get those skins through drops then I can buy whatever dances I really want. There's so much stuff there's no way I can get everything I want.

crossing my fingers for the D.Va and Genji skins.

I get the critiques of it but I think Lucio's skin is amazing and I will hear nothing against it

@y2ken: As soon as I realised that the customisation side was first and foremost built around paid f2p style blind-boxes I just told myself to just never care about that side of things. The skins do look nice but I don't want to to get invested in them when they can only be unlocked by either paying real money (after paying full price for the game) or playing an unrealistic amount of it. But maybe that means I'm not devoted to playing enough to earn the cosmetics anyway lol.

Luckily for me it hasn't dampened the fun of the actual game, although I can see it being disheartening if it changed a lot from the beta. Hopefully I'll be able to play some more this weekend.

Maaaaaaan I've gotta get a hold of those Zarya and Lucio skins!

@paulmako: what's an 'unrealistic' amount? Surely if you want the skins that badly you already play at least somewhat regularly, in which case you should have plenty of currency to buy whichever skin floats you boat. I have 13k coins to spend this event, if by the end of it I don't have the one or two I want I'll buy them, and will still have ample for the next event.

I also want to chime in and say that Lúcio skin is awesome. I like vests, and the golden steampunk look is cool. This also means he finally has a skin I really want, other than the basic color changes. I don't care about sports at all, so those skins have been boring to me. And I don't really feel the DJ-mouse ones either.

Anyone know if they intend to make some sort of PVE permanent? I haven't played for a long time, and missed those modes when they where available. I hear they where cool, and from what I read it seemed like one of them was in the game now. Was kinda bummed when it wasn't in.

@jaqen_hghar: I feel ya on the lucio skins duder. None of his stuff so far has really been that great imo. The "jazzy" skin this time around is top tier. I just got it yesterday. I haven't tried it out yet, but from what I hear it changes the music that lucio outputs when he's healing and speed boosting. I really appreciates blizzard's commitment to detail. Dva's retro 50's style skin also has something similar in that whenever she says "Hello", she instead says"Hey Daddyo". Those kinds of touches are everywhere in the game, so it's not that surprising. It's just nice to see them keep up the creativity on that end.

And as far as PvE, there's nothing in the pipeline that I'm aware of. So far those past modes have only been temporary. I was hoping they'd put them in the arcade section at some point, but that's been a no go. I mean, I get that they're for specific events, but it just seems kinda weird to lock them away for a whole year. Like you, I'm really hoping they put out some kind of permanent PvE mode. People really seem to like it, so why not?

@themanwithnoplan: Neat! Changing music, sounds and voice lines makes the skins even better. They've been doing top notch stuff with the cosmetics I think. The new dances are pretty awesome as well!

I know I would play it more if there where a PVE mode at least. Sometimes the stress (even though the stress isn't as prominent in this game) of playing good not to let down anonymous teammates makes me play something else. I am not usually a PVP guy, and playing it now for the first time in months really highlights the skill needed to be good. I am not that good.

Got the cool Hanzo skin!

For the third time :/

The duplicate rates are so bad.

Just wanted to bump this one last time as a reminder that tomorrow is the last day of the event and the double xp weekend. If they're any last skins, emotes or icons you'd like to try and get I'd jump in right now. :)