Overwatch 2's Midtown map has its cop cars reskinned as part of its Pride-themed overhaul.
from Midtown, with lead narrative designer Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie stating that"'how we hope the world will be' is a big part of our story dev".
It isn't a perfect solution. Painting over the cars is arguably not as good as removing them entirely. That more dramatic solution might affect map flow, but simply changing how they look has the unfortunate implication that Blizzard's pro-pride stance is only skin deep.
That said, as documented in Niandra's video, Overwatch 2's Pride event does go further than this. It introduces new short stories exploring the identities of certain characters, like Pharah, and Baptiste. Blizzard have also added free Pride cosmetics, including player icons and name cards, that will be permanent fixtures of the game from here on out.
Overall, Niandra has a positive opinion of the Pride event."The bar was never very high with [LGBTQA+ representation], but I'm honestly really impressed by what we've got here," although they do point out that"some identities do get left out" referring to the absence of a genderqueer flag. It's also worth noting that Blizzard's Pride cosmetics
in countries that have anti-gay laws such as Russia, with Overwatch's game director Aaron Keller stating"It's better to be able to engage where you can than to not be able to engage with people at all."Sign up to get the best content of the week, and great gaming deals, as picked by the editors.Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors
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