Overwatch 2 Team Announces Pride Month Event, Plans To Revisit Older Character's Identities

gamespot.com:

The Overwatch 2 team has announced that the game will be celebrating Pride month for the first time in the series' history beginning on June 1. These festivities will include a handful of small-yet-meaningful updates, including changes to two of the game's current maps: Midtown and Watchpoint: Gibraltar.

Starting on June 1, the Midtown map will be updated to showcase the city shortly after a Pride parade, with rainbow confetti and inclusive signage generously sprinkled throughout the entire map. Watchpoint: Gibraltar is getting a much more subtle update in the shape of a picture of Tracer and her longtime partner, Emily, placed in the barracks. This picture will also be available as a spray for Tracer.

In addition to these map changes, the Pride event will also introduce several permanent icons and name cards to the game, allowing players to freely express their identities while they play. Those represented by the cards and icons include Agender, Aromantic, Asexual, Bisexual, Gay, Genderfluid, Intersex, Lesbian, Non-binary, Pansexual, and Transexual individuals. For fans looking to express themselves and their sexual identity outside of the world of Overwatch, the team also shared a link to Blizzard's Pride month collection, with a note that all of Blizzard's net proceeds raised from May 16 through June 30 will be donated to the National Center for Transgender Equality.

Also outside of the main game is a new, short story centered on Baptiste entitled, «As You Are.» The story follows a tender conversation between Pharah and Baptiste, and is currently available to read over at the Overwatch 2 media hub.

For those curious as to why Blizzard has waited so long to celebrate Pride in-game, the team shared the answer in a blog