After extensive teasing by Blizzard, the next Overwatch character appears to have been leaked online.
Blizzard has been dropping hints about a new Overwatch hero called ‘Sombra’ for months, but a new leak seemingly confirms her existence once and for all. A piece of artwork depicting an unknown character has been discovered on Blizzard’s official Overwatch merchandise store, with the filename reading: "bzbc16_sombrafineart_1_1”.
The image is a digital painting of a female character clad in purple, surrounded by what looks like purple energy. Given Sombra’s apparent ‘hacker’ background – per previous teasers – this (sort of) makes sense.
It’s also worth noting that the image has been signed by John Polidora, whose LinkedIn profile confirms his role as Senior Concept Artist and Character Designer at Blizzard, working specifically on the Overwatch team.
Unsurprisingly, the image has since been removed from the official Blizzard website, but a mirror of the art was posted to Reddit.
It’s expected that Blizzard will be announcing Sombra at its annual Blizzcon convention, which takes place later this week. You’ll be able to find live coverage of Blizzcon 2016 on November 4 and 5 right here on TrustedReviews, including any Sombra-related news.
Overwatch is Blizzard’s first shooter game, and launched in May 2016 on Windows PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The game’s open beta saw 9.7 million players try out Overwatch, while Blizzard reported that 7 million players had racked up 119 million hours of playtime just one week after the game’s official launch. In October, this figure had risen to 20 million.
There are currently 22 playable heroes in Overwatch, with Sombra apparently set to land as the 23rd. Blizzard has pledged not to charge extra money for additional downloadable content, so it seems Sombra will be free to play when (or if) she arrives.
