Blizzard’s expansion of the Overwatch IP is coming to mobile phones. The long-rumored mobile Overwatch game was officially announced this morning. Say hello to Overwatch Rush.
While still early in development, the company unveiled a first look at early gameplay of the hero shooter spinoff, which has a top-down angle and is built specifically for mobile to help expand the Overwatch universe.
The new mobile game is being crafted by “a dedicated team at Blizzard, separate from Team 4, all of whom have deep mobile experience,” Blizzard said. Main Overwatch dev Team 4 “remains fully focused on Overwatch, which will continue to bring exciting and fresh new experiences for PC and console players in its recently launched season one and beyond.”
This is a whole new game built from the ground up for mobile, but the gameplay video, with some cringy and questionable game chatter, shows what looks like some classic Overwatch game type gameplay with the unique third-person perspective.
“While there remains a lot of work to do, we’re eager to see how players enjoy what we’ve built so far, and to hear from them on what we should focus on in the coming phases of development,” Blizzard said. “Our mission is to continue to expand the Overwatch universe by bringing fresh new adventures to players across all platforms. We’ll continue to keep you updated on how things are progressing.”
I’ve never been the biggest fan of mobile gameplay, as I can’t really vibe with the touch controls. But if the game supports controllers, then I could see this being something I would dabble in from time to time. When it comes to hero shooters, the characters pull a lot of the weight, and OW heroes are already very established, so that could bode well for this one.
Blizzard’s history with mobile has seen its successes, with titles like Hearthstone, Diablo Immortal, and Warcraft Rumble finding some foothold with gamers on iOS and Android. Whenever a non-mobile IP comes to phones, it’s always a bit of a gamble whether or not it will become a hit with mobile-first gamers. An example of one that didn’t strike a chord was Call of Duty’s Warzone Mobile, which did not translate to mobile players and had its development shut down.
Overwatch Rush has its own Discord server where players can stay up to date on news, including when the game rolls out for testing “in select countries and regions.”
