Ana is just the beginning. Blizzard is just getting started with expanding Overwatch with this first additional character, who herself was a surprise as she wasn't the one expected given previous hints and clues. So, what happened to Sombra? This is what Kotaku asked Jeff Kaplan.
"I think people have learned that she's a fun character for them to search and to learn more about and that, like the X-Files, the truth is out there", the game director said after confirming that, indeed, Sombra and Ana were not one and the same. He admits they have been hyping the announcement for a while, but then they introduced the clue to Ana at Temple of Anubis and people were confused. "Sometimes, people's obsession with being on the trail gives them a little bit of tunnel vision," he adds.
Meanwhile, the riddles regarding this new character keep on coming. User blinry has posted on Reddit a QR code obtained after working on a series of barcodes. And it turns out that the resulting message is in Spanish, same as the 'sombra' word, reading "¿Estuvo eso facilito? Ahora que tengo su atención, déjenme se las pongo más difícil." Or, in English: "Was that easy? Now that I have your attention, let's make things more difficult." This, added to the El Dorado hint, teases a Latin American character, with some other clues hinting at Mexico.
Getting back to Kaplan, he also touches upon expanding game modes, being even more cryptic in this regard. He makes it clear the most important part are the characters and "we never want a game mode to overshadow the heroes". But he admits new modes will be based on the multiplayer team experience, and not "lone wolf" play.
They also have "some absolutely crazy stuff that's going to blow people's minds coming out sooner than people realise. That's, I think, going to catch people totally out of left field like, 'Wow, I wasn't expecting that from Overwatch'".
Perhaps this is going to happen next month, as ideally they want to launch something every single month, but Kaplan doesn't want to make any guarantees on that front.
While new modes and heroes come to Overwatch, here's our two hours play time with Ana in competitive mode:
