OVERWATCH
Overwatch is a multi-platform sci-fi media franchise created by Blizzard Entertainment, set on a near-future Earth rebuilding after a global robotic uprising known as the Omnic Crisis. Originating with the hit 2016 hero shooter video game, the franchise spans a free-to-play sequel, animated lore shorts, miniseries, digital comics, and prose novels.
Cronologia
Panoramica
Created by Blizzard Entertainment, Overwatch debuted in 2016 as a groundbreaking team-based first-person hero shooter set sixty years into the future. The universe revolves around 'Overwatch,' an elite international task force established by the United Nations to end a destructive global uprising of robotic omnics and secure peace.
Over its history, the franchise has expanded far beyond its flagship multiplayer video games into a rich transmedia universe comprising CGI animated cinematics, miniseries, prose short stories, and extensive comic book runs.
The central video game saga includes the original 2016 title and its 2022 free-to-play live-service sequel, Overwatch 2, which transformed the multiplayer format into 5v5 team combat and introduced story-driven PvE content. Storytelling plays a vital role in building the universe, supported by animated projects like the 2023 three-part miniseries Overwatch: Genesis and serialized comic runs continuing through 2026. Through its diverse roster of international heroes, villains, and rogue omnics, Overwatch remains one of Blizzard's premier original properties.
Origini
The Overwatch franchise was introduced to the public by Blizzard Entertainment through early teaser trailers and animated origin shorts between 2014 and 2015, preceding the official launch of the first video game on May 24, 2016.
Within the game's lore, the Overwatch organization was founded during the height of the Omnic Crisis when humanity faced an unprecedented war against rogue AI-driven robots.
Recognizing that individual nations could not hold their territories alone, UN architect Gabrielle Adawe and United Nations leadership pooled Earth's elite soldiers, scientists, and strategists into an asymmetric strike unit. Original founding members included strike commander Gabriel Reyes, tactical organizer Jack Morrison, sniper Ana Amari, scientist Mina Liao, engineer Torbjörn Lindholm, and warrior Reinhardt Wilhelm. After destroying the omnics' command protocols in dangerous raids, the war ended, and Jack Morrison was appointed Overwatch's first official strike commander, ushering in a decades-long golden age of international peacekeeping before internal corruption and political scandal brought down the agency.
I PEZZI DI OVERWATCH
Winston, who initiated the recall to reunite Overwatch agents, is a genetically engineered gorilla scientist.
