Even after recently celebrating its second birthday, Overwatch has managed to keep its hype train rolling thanks to the shooter’s newest hero, Wrecking Ball. So you better believe the game will be making a splash at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, which starts this week.
The Overwatch team, including lead writer Michael Chu, art director Arnold Tsang, sound designer Geoffrey Garnett, and principal game designer Geoff Goodman, will be hosting a panel called “Behind-the-Scenes of Overwatch’s Newest Hero.” The one-hour panel is scheduled for Friday, July 20 at 3:15 PT at the San Diego Convention Center’s room 6BCF on the upper level.
At the panel, Overwatch devs will talk about how they pieced together the game’s furry new hero, expanding on last week’s live stream. From that stream, we learned some early Junkrat concept art sparked the idea for Hammond. Blizzard also revealed that Hammond was once a robot hamster, but they eventually made him an actual hamster while keeping the idea of a mechanized hamster ball.
The team will also host the next stop on the Overwatch Payload Tour at the Omni Hotel’s fourth floor grand ballroom from July 18 to 22. There, fans will be able to pose with a bunch of props on an Overwatch-map inspired stage. All fans that participate in the event will get a free pin. According to Blizzard, there will also be a Grillmaster: 76 cosplayer hanging out around the stage and on the San Diego Comic-Con show floor for photo opportunities.
Fans can also look forward to San Diego Comic-Con exclusive merchandise that will be available at the Blizzard booth, but no prices have been announced for any of the items yet. Here’s what you can get if you’re heading down to sunny San Diego.
- Cute But Deadly: D.Va toy with mech* and Twilight-skin Orisa
- Funko Pop!: Roadhog and Junkrat two-pack, Grillmaster: 76 (available at Funko Pop! booth)
- Tokidoki: A new line of Overwatch items will be launched
- Goldimari mini plush
- A “fine art” print of the Blizzard World map
*The Cute But Deadly D.Va toy is not an exclusive, but will be debuting at the convention.
Blizzard will also have merch available from World of Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft and more. Additionally, there will be a Tokidoki signing on Saturday, July 21 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and a Christie Golden signing from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Both signings will take place at the Blizzard booth.