Data Miners Discover Overwatch GOTY Edition, Anniversary Loot Boxes

The humble data miners have some of the most thankless jobs in the gaming industry, searching the internal code for hints, leftover secrets, and allusions to future content, sharing their discoveries freely with the world, even if it invites heaps of scorn from the developers of said games. This probably goes double for developer Blizzard, who has famously been rather protective of its properties and ideas, with an ego that’s been inflated beyond the point of recognition.

If you need proof of that, go look up the current Overwatch eSports debacle. It’s way too much to go into here but it illustrates nicely the dark side of Blizzard’s enormous self-love.

In any case, data miners have just finished delving into the latest patch of the aforementioned game and discovered two interesting bits of info that will be good to know for Overwatch fans or people who are looking to see what all the fuss is about.

The first is that it seems Blizzard is planning to release a Game of the Year edition of the game, to replace the “origins edition” that’s currently available. Functionally, it’s the same package (Tracer in Heroes of the Storm, baby Winston pet in WoW, Origin skins, and more) but it has one added bonus: 10 free loot boxes. They say it’ll be released quite soon, on May 23rd, a day before Overwatch turns one year old.

They also discovered Overwatch Anniversary loot boxes, which would contain 100 new items. While we don’t know the exact date these boxes will be available, we know that they’ll vanish on June 5th. Given that most Overwatch events run 3 weeks, though, then it would be safe to assume this one will as well, putting the start date on Tuesday, May 16th.

Unlike most rumors, these have a seriously strong basis and I doubt Blizzard would hold anything back out of spite. Expect to see two “surprises” in the coming weeks!