Overwatch animated media

Blizzard Entertainment released several computer-generated cinematic trailers and teasers, as well as animated short films, to promote and develop the story for their 2016 first-person shooter video game, Overwatch.

However, prior to the event, humanity developed omnics, artificial intelligence (AI) that led efforts in creating global economic equality and manufacturing.

After a few decades, Overwatch would soon face allegations of corruption, mismanagement, weapons proliferation, and human rights abuses, among others, leading to worldwide protests against the organization.

[1] In the Soldier: 76 Origin Story animation, Morrison accounts that the allegations against Overwatch were part of a conspiracy.

[‡ 1] Following this back story are five of the first six animated shorts (the exception is Dragons, which takes place during the era in which Overwatch maintained peace), as well as the first cinematic trailer.

Through this animated media, in conjunction with comics and fictional news reports, Blizzard developed the story of Overwatch, rather than including it in the video game.

Within the video game, the story is instead "hinted at through environments and character quips, with each individual personality reacting to the events of the battle in their own way", as Kirk McKeand of The Telegraph detailed.

"[7] In 2017, Kaplan stated that a debut for a second season was "making good progress," although the Infiltration short had premiered at BlizzCon 2016, between The Last Bastion and his comments.

Various outlets including The Telegraph, The Mary Sue, and The Daily Beast have all likened Blizzard's animations to Pixar's films.

"[37] Nick Schager of The Daily Beast praised the cinematic teaser, which is also seen when the game is first loaded up, expressing that "the charisma of these avatars is established early on, in an introductory video featuring hyper-intelligent simian warrior Winston that establishes the game's Earth-under-siege sci-fi premise – and proves to be a tour-de-force of digital animation.

It's no exaggeration to say that Winston feels like he's leapt out of a Pixar film (or a similarly gorgeous Disney effort like Big Hero 6).

"[17] Lachenal also wrote that the Dragons short was "filled with gorgeous animations and some pretty sweet action sequences.

[24] Gabe Gurwin of Digital Trends, while agreeing that the Blizzard released "a number of fantastic computer-animated short films," was critical of their decision to exclude the story from the game.