Overwatch 2's Pride Month causes Twitter to have a meltdown
It's that time of year again, as corporate greed gets a splash with a rainbow-coloured brush and Pride Month descends on everything from Levi's to Starbucks. If there's one culprit that can be accused of cashing in on the pink pound the most, it's the gaming industry.
We're all for LGBTQ+ representation, but ultimately, games are trapped between a rock and a hard place of platforming these communities and being accused of virtue signalling. Also, Pride Month is the perfect opportunity for homophobes to crawl out of the woodwork. If anyone knows that, it's Overwatch 2.
What are Overwatch 2's Pride Month celebrations?
Blizzard has rolled out the rainbow carpet for Pride Month, with Overwatch 2's Pride Month celebrations being the biggest yet. Raining glitter down on players over the month of June, the team has shown off an impressive Pride Month roadmap. As you can imagine, the Twitter replies are a dumpster fire.
The inaugural Overwatch 2 Pride event is apparently "just the beginning of Pride in Overwatch 2," with plans to expand "deeper lore" over the seasons and years. From June 1, Overwatch 2 players can collect LGBTQ+ cosmetics. The Midtown map is getting rainbow crossroads and Pride flags to represent a post-Pride parade in Overwatch 2.
The title's roster of heroes who identify as LGBTQ+ is also expanding, with confirmation Baptiste is bisexual and Pharah is a lesbian. This pair joins Tracer, Soldier: 76, and Lifeweaver as queer characters. There's a new short story exploring Baptiste and Pharah's sexualities, called "As You Are."
Overwatch 2's Pride Month celebrations get destroyed online
Click to enlargeIn a group interview (via Polygon), Game Director Aaron Keller explained, "We wanted Pride, in the game, the event that we're running, we wanted it to feel like the game is reflecting what's happening in the real world," adding that Overwatch does it at other points of the year like Halloween and Lunar New Year.
As you can imagine, this supposedly heartfelt idea was soon ripped to pieces in the comments. One critic wrote, "Perfect time to uninstall and boot up Diablo IV," while another grumbled, "When all else fails, go woke." A third questioned, "If I identify as a hero skill tree will you guys bother to develop one?"
Someone else concluded, "Wow, I can't wait for Overwatch to finally acknowledge the existence of LGBTQ+ people for one month of the year and then go back to ignoring us for the rest of it." Like we said, Blizzard was never going to win this one. Oh well, at least things will be more colourful for the next month.
