Overwatch: First Strike Graphic Novel is Officially Cancelled

<p><em>Overwatch&colon; First Strike<&sol;em> was to be a key media release for Blizzard Activision&&num;8217&semi;s uber-popular team shooter&period; The 100-page graphic novel was to be released in December&comma; with a physical release through Dark Horse Comics in early 2017&period; That however&comma; was not meant to be&comma; and Blizzard has confirmed that the project has been scratched&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In a recent <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;us&period;battle&period;net&sol;forums&sol;en&sol;overwatch&sol;topic&sol;20752185714&num;post-1">post<&sol;a> on the <em>Overwatch<&sol;em> forums by lead writer Michael Chu&comma; he confirmed the news&period; &&num;8220&semi;<em>The original idea for the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;graphically&period;io&sol;portfolio&sol;">graphic novel<&sol;a> dates back to the early days of the game&&num;8217&semi;s development and came from our desire to tell the story of the founding of Overwatch during the Omnic Crisis&period; In the years since First Strike&&num;8217&semi;s conception&comma; we have done a lot of development on the universe and its stories&period; While the core of this story remains&comma; we have changed and expanded upon how we see the events that took place during the first days of Overwatch&period;<&sol;em>&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;115534" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-115534" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-115534" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;11&sol;22051000&sol;ana-screenshot-004-1024x619&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Overwatch&comma; Blizzard" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"604" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-115534" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Overwatch&comma; Blizzard&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>This is sad news for the fans of the shooter&comma; which already has more than <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;polygon&period;com&sol;2016&sol;10&sol;11&sol;13247156&sol;overwatch-20-million-players-blizzard">20 million players<&sol;a>&period; Blizzard has crafted a very interesting world for their game&comma; however they have left it up to players to seek out a fair amount of the lore&comma; as to what happened before and during the Omnic Crisis&comma; and how many of the characters relate to each other&period; There are audio quips that occur generally before games that give some clues to characters and their relations to one and another&comma; and Blizzard&&num;8217&semi;s animation studio has put out a fair number of top-notch animated shorts that have explored aspects of a number of the <em>Overwatch<&sol;em> characters&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-youtube layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"500" height&equals;"281" data-videoid&equals;"Og5-Pm4HNlI" title&equals;"Overwatch Animated Short &vert; &quot&semi;Infiltration&quot&semi;"><a placeholder href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;Og5-Pm4HNlI"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;Og5-Pm4HNlI&sol;hqdefault&period;jpg" layout&equals;"fill" object-fit&equals;"cover" alt&equals;"Overwatch Animated Short &vert; &quot&semi;Infiltration&quot&semi;"><&sol;a><&sol;amp-youtube><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It will be interesting to see how they continue to tell the story of <em>Overwatch<&sol;em>&comma; both with a focus on the characters and on the world in general&period; The shorts have done a great job of setting up the overall feel for the world&comma; and introducing it to players and even non-players who may be fascinated by the character design and world&period; One way that they could move to telling the story is through television&period; Activision Blizzard has recently launched a <em>Skylanders<&sol;em> show on Netflix&comma; with solid animation and writing&comma; and a surprising voice cast that includes Justin Long&comma; Ashley Tisdale and Norm MacDonald&period; Could this partnership lead to another Activision Blizzard deal with Netflix&quest; If so&comma; <em>Overwatch<&sol;em> could be a property that could do quite well as a serialized animated show&period; <em>Overwatch&colon; First Strike<&sol;em> would have been a great chance to shed light onto the world of <em>Overwatch<&sol;em>&comma; but fans will now have to wait a little while longer for Blizzard to tell more of McCree and the gang&&num;8217&semi;s tales&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Source&colon; <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;us&period;battle&period;net&sol;forums&sol;en&sol;overwatch&sol;topic&sol;20752185714&num;post-1">Overwatch Blog<&sol;a><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;