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February 2025 | In Season 15, Blizzard introduced a new gameplay feature called 'perks', allowing players to select ability-altering upgrades during matches, and brought back loot boxes earnable through gameplay. |
December 2024 | Blizzard began experimenting with six-on-six team combat through limited period tests and 'Overwatch Classic' events in Season 14. |
August 2024 | A new game mode called Clash was introduced in Season 12, featuring five sequential control points with increasingly challenging capture mechanics. |
July 2024 | By July 2024, both Overwatch and Overwatch 2 had surpassed 100 million total players. |
April 2024 | With the start of Season 10, Blizzard reversed its battle pass hero unlock policy, making new and existing heroes free for all players, with tutorial missions required for unlocking previously unowned heroes. |
February 2024 | In Season 9, Blizzard implemented a major combat and competitive system overhaul, including hero health boosts, passive healing, and a new competitive ranking system that adjusts ranks after each game. |
2023 | Overwatch 2 was released on Steam, receiving a significant number of negative reviews and becoming the worst-rated Steam game within 48 hours. |
2023 | Blizzard dissolved its agreement with NetEase in China, impacting local server access for Chinese players. |
2023 | Blizzard Entertainment decided to scrap the planned story-based cooperative modes to focus on player-versus-player (PvP) gameplay elements. |
September 2023 | Hero Mastery courses were introduced, providing players with training opportunities to improve skills with specific characters by completing maps with the shortest time and highest score. |
August 2023 | Blizzard added three story-based PvE missions in Season 6, advancing the game's narrative and offering objective-based gameplay experiences. |
August 2023 | Overwatch 2 officially released, becoming a free-to-play game available on multiple platforms including Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. |
May 2023 | Developers announced the cancellation of the originally planned extensive PvE game modes, instead opting to offer story-based events that players would need to purchase for $15. |
2022 | Panda Cup introduced as an officially licensed circuit for Super Smash Bros. Melee and Ultimate. |
2022 | Overwatch 2 attracted over 35 million users in its first month of early access, more than double the original Overwatch's initial player count. |
2022 | Overwatch 2 was released, shifting from the original 6v6 gameplay dynamic to a 5v5 format, and introducing a battle pass system that replaced the previous loot box mechanic. |
2022 | Upon release, the game received widespread criticism for its battle pass system, particularly the decision to lock the character Kiriko behind the first season's battle pass. |
November 24 2022 | Nintendo denied licensing for Smash World Tour 2022, leading to the cancellation of the Smash World Tour 2022 Championships and the Smash World Tour 2023. |
October 2022 | Overwatch 2 entered early access, allowing players to play the game before its official release. |
October 4 2022 | Overwatch 2 was released as a free-to-play early access game for multiple platforms, including Windows, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. The release was complicated by a DDOS attack and SMS verification issues. |
April 26 2022 | First wave of Overwatch 2 invitation-only closed beta began, running until May 17. |
2021 | Smash World Tour successfully relaunched with a mix of online and offline qualifiers, culminating in a final offline championship. |
2021 | UNESCO confirmed media access increased to 4.2 billion users, highlighting growth in content accessibility. |
December 2021 | Rec Room Inc. raises $145 million in another funding round, increasing the studio's valuation to $3.5 billion. |
October 2021 | Sora from Kingdom Hearts series released as the final fighter in Fighters Pass Volume 2, concluding the game's planned DLC content. |
June 2021 | Kazuya Mishima from Tekken series released as the fifth fighter in Fighters Pass Volume 2. |
April 2021 | Jeff Kaplan left Blizzard, with Aaron Keller taking over as lead developer for Overwatch 2. |
March 2021 | Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 released as the fourth fighters in Fighters Pass Volume 2. |
March 2021 | Rec Room Inc. announces a $100 million funding round, achieving unicorn status with a valuation of $1.25 billion. |
2020 | Development of Fighters Pass Volume 2 is significantly impacted by COVID-19 pandemic, with Sakurai and his development team working remotely due to stay-at-home orders in Japan. |
2020 | Nominated for Favorite Video Game at Kids' Choice Awards |
2020 | The CMPF conducted another round of media pluralism measurement, examining the state of media diversity and independence in the European Union. |
2020 | Global mobile cellular subscriptions reached 5.2 billion, representing two-thirds of the world's population. |
December 2020 | Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII released as the third fighter in Fighters Pass Volume 2, with a limited-time 'Sephiroth Challenge' boss battle preceding his full release. |
December 2020 | Rec Room Inc. announces an additional $20 million in funding. |
October 2020 | Steve from Minecraft released as the second fighter in Fighters Pass Volume 2. |
September 2020 | Ultimate reached over 21.10 million copies sold worldwide, becoming the best-selling fighting game of all time and the third-best-selling Nintendo Switch game. |
June 2020 | Min Min from ARMS released as the first fighter in Fighters Pass Volume 2. |
May 8 2020 | The Box online tournament hosted by Hungrybox, Le'Veon Bell, and Team Liquid, featuring a $10,000 prize pool for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players. |
February 2020 | Announcement of the Smash World Tour featuring Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Melee, with a grand prize pool of $250,000 and planned international qualifiers. |
January 2020 | Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses released as the fifth and final DLC fighter in the first Fighters Pass. |
2019 | Won Nintendo Game of the Year at Golden Joystick Awards |
2019 | Won Excellence in Gameplay at SXSW Gaming Awards, while being nominated for Video Game of the Year, Excellence in Art, and Excellence in Multiplayer |
2019 | Swept multiple awards at Japan Game Awards, winning Grand Prize, Best Sales Award, Global Award for Japanese Product, Excellence Award, and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Award |
2019 | At The Game Awards 2019, won Best Fighting Game and was nominated for Game of the Year and Best Family Game |
2019 | Won Fighting Game of the Year at the 22nd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards |
2019 | Blizzard Entertainment officially announced Overwatch 2 as the sequel to the original Overwatch game. |
November 2019 | Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury series released as the fourth DLC fighter in the first Fighters Pass. |
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Overwatch 2, Rec Room (video game), Media pluralism, Geometry Dash & Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.