Overwatch 2 celebrates its first in-game Pride event

theverge.com:

Overwatch 2 will celebrate its first-ever Pride event. Starting June 1st, the Midtown map will be festooned with Pride flags, the lesbian hero Tracer will have a picture of her and her partner added to the barracks in the Watchpoint: Gibraltar map, and players will get a host of icons and name cards reflect the breadth of queer identities and the Overwatch heroes who share them. The Verge had the opportunity to speak with the developers about this new event, gaining insight into what went into creating this event and what this means for Overwatch’s LGBTQ+ fans and characters.

“We want it to feel like the game is reflecting what’s happening in the real world. Wedo it for Halloween. We do it for Lunar New Year, too,” said game director Aaron Keller during the interview. “It’s important to carry this forward for Pride as well.”

Overwatch has been celebrated for the diversity of its characters, reflecting people from around the world. Shortly after the game’s launch in 2016, the Overwatch team released a comic identifying the hero Tracer — who, because of her prominence in the game’s marketing, has been essentially the face of the game — as a lesbian. In 2019, the gruff Soldier: 76 was confirmed as gay. More recently, the game’s latest support character, Lifeweaver, was introduced as pansexual — making it the first time an Overwatch character’s sexuality was included as a part of their announcement rather than added after the fact.

Over the years, there’s been lots of speculation from fans and oh so many fanworks discussing the sexuality of the Overwatch heroes. For this new event, Blizzard is adding two more characters to the roster of queer heroes: Baptiste and Pharah.

In a short story released as a part of the event, the