Overwatch anniversary event, Game of the Year edition could be on the way

A special re-release of Overwatch may soon be heading to stores in honor of the game’s first anniversary, according to a fresh datamine of the Xbox Marketplace. Achievement tracker TrueAchievements found signs that both a Game of the Year edition of the game and an in-game anniversary event could be launching soon.

“It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that our scanners have just picked up the Overwatch: Game of the Year Edition along with several Anniversary Loot Boxes,” wrote TrueAchievement’s Dave Horobin in a blog post. The site’s dataminers found box art, descriptions and other info about both unannounced releases.

Based on its store description, the Game of the Year set will include the full game; 10 loot boxes; origin skins for five undisclosed characters; a “baby Winston pet” to use in World of Warcraft; and a playable version of unofficial Overwatch mascot Tracer for Heroes of the Storm, among other features.

As for the anniversary loot boxes, those suggest that the next big Overwatch event will be a celebration of the game’s first year. Each box will include an anniversary skin, spray, highlight intro, pose, icon or voice line, according to TrueAchievements’ scanners, although no further pictures or info was found. These loot boxes will be on sale until June 5, based on the datamine.

Blizzard Entertainment has yet to confirm or deny any plans to celebrate Overwatch’s first birthday in the game itself. A recent Twitter reply from the game’s official account suggests that an anniversary event is on its way, however. When one user asked when the anniversary event begins, the account replied, “No timing details yet.”

Overwatch launched nearly one year ago, on May 24. The game’s racked up more than 30 million players in the 11 months since.

We’ve reached out to Blizzard about the possible event and re-release and will update with more when we have it.