For those keenly keeping up with the Overwatch 2 cookie crumb trail of rumors, leaks and reports, it appears the reveal of the game's 35th hero is on the horizon.
With the first beta, players finally got to play as the new DPS Sojourn. In the second, the Junker Queen tank was unleashed in full force. With the rumored third Overwatch 2 beta, it seems Blizzard Entertainment is getting set to debut a fox-themed support.
At the end of the second Overwatch 2 beta on July 19, Twitter user @Hayzelet posted a not-so subtle hint from Blizzard teasing what's next.
In the first screenshot, a mysterious line of random text can be seen, seemingly sent as a service message in-game by Blizzard. In the second image, Hazelet demonstrated how, when decoded, the message actually reads, "What does the fox say."
To the untrained eye, this might seem to just refer to the 2013 viral song by Ylvis. Those in the Overwatch community, however, are all but certain that this links to an unreleased support hero.
Back in 2019, Game Informer notably detailed a visit in which then-Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan showed them an image containing four silhouettes of unreleased OW2 heroes. Out of the four, the report went especially in-depth on one having to do with a fox-like creature.
"The hero that stood out the most," the Game Informer report reads, "and I couldn't take my eyes off of, appeared to be a female with short hair. At her side and standing up to her knees was a fuzzy little critter with pointy ears and an equally pointy tail. It looked like a fennec fox, but with longer ears and a more aggressive stance. The hero of note wielded a giant four-sided weapon, which is somewhat similar to the shuriken used by Yuffie in Final Fantasy VII, but much thicker."
In 2020, the free-for-all map Kanezaka made its Overwatch debut and was quickly discovered to have its own teaser once again pointing to a fox hero.
In 2021, Blizzard then dropped yet another teaser, sharing a correspondence from someone named "Asa Yamagami" to her husband, Toshiro Yamagami.
"I will ask the fox spirit for strength to continue this fight and for wisdom for myself and for all of us," the letter reads. "Then, after sunset, I will take the sword that you gave me so long ago at our yuino and patrol the streets of this place that both fills my heart and breaks it. I will find these self-appointed 'guardians,' who, if not deterred from this path, may be the spark of a misguided and deadly fire that will consume us all."
In February, a since-banned user by the name of BLIZZIBURNER posted a thread on MMO-Champion claiming that they're "good friends" with someone who works on Team 2, Blizzard's development team in charge of World of Warcraft.
The apparent leak name-dropped two unreleased heroes:
- Mauga, a "buff tank dude that dual-wields Gatling guns."
- Yako, a "teenage ninja girl with a giant shuriken and pet fox spirit."
Finally, on June 12, the Overwatch 2 release date reveal trailer included a five-second clip showing a light blue, mystical fox seemingly leading the way on Kanezaka.
As for why this character is expected to be a support, the "All-New Heroes" tab on the official Overwatch 2 Beta website has long shown an image with Sojourn's icon next to two unknown heroes, one being a tank and the other a support.
With the Junker Queen as the tank, it seems all that's left is for the unknown support to be revealed before the launch of Overwatch 2.
Last month, a Reddit post detailing a private interview between French content creator Potxeca and a pair of Blizzard devs seemingly revealed that not only will there be a third and final OW2 beta before October, but a Tank named Mauga will eventually be coming post-launch in Season 2. Blizzard itself has yet to confirm plans for a third beta.
This article was originally published on dbltap as Next Overwatch 2 Hero Potentially Teased as Beta Two Ends.