New Overwatch Map Blizzard World Given Release Date

Revealed during Blizzcon 2017, the next big map for Overwatch finally has a realease date: Blizzard World is set to arrive on January 23. The official Blizzard Twitter account is distributing tickets to the fictional theme park that you can download here, just in case you want to feel like you're going on an actual amusement park vacation. However, as we learned during last year's Blizzcon Overwatch interview, Blizzard World is not a real place that the company is secretly building--not yet anyway.

The Blizzard World Overwatch map has a theme park style with attractions modeled after various Blizzard properties, including Starcraft and Warcraft; you can check out our initial impressions after playing in it for the first time here. The map has been available on PTR since last year, but its move to the official game means it will finally be available for Xbox One and PS4 players to try out.

In addition to the new map, game director Jeff Kaplan mentioned recently that even more characters, maps, and events are on the way to Overwatch in 2018. And the next big event coming up is based around the Lunar New Year, which will likely launch around the time of the Chinese New Year on February 16.

And in other Overwatch news, the newly minted Overwatch League has officially begun. While we were at the event, we got to chat with Kaplan about the company's esports strategy. And you can keep up with the current teams' standings with our roundup of League results here.