New Overwatch Easter Egg Is Blizzard's Tribute To Fan Who Died
Blizzard's hit FPS Overwatch received a sizable update this week, introducing a few small patches and adding the long-awaiting Competitive Play mode for PC and Xbox One players. But it also included a small Easter egg on the Lijiang Tower map, acting as the developer's tribute to a Chinese fan who sadly never got to play Overwatch, but was excited for its release.
20-year-old Wu Hongyu was a college student in Guangzhou, China. On May 23rd, the day before the game's global release, he saw someone stealing a classmate's motorbike. Wu then hopped onto his own bike, giving chase to the thief, but at some point the two vehicles collided, leaving him with severe injuries. He died at the hospital shortly after the accident.
On the Overwatch subreddit, user czhihong shared an image of a chat log with Wu, showing a message posted sometime shortly before he died, which translates to "Hey guys, is anyone else really waiting for the launch tomorrow?"
Reddit user Rebirdhk was the first to notice Blizzard's in-game tribute, posting a picture of the altered display case with astronaut space suits. The center suit now has Hongyu's name written on the chest in Chinese characters, while the wall behind it now includes the message "heroes never die" — also one of the in-game catchphrases of the character Mercy.
"We added that in remembrance of a brave member of our community," Blizzard confirmed in a statement to Polygon. In addition to the tribute within Overwatch, local Chinese media reported that the city of Guangzhou named Wu a "Courageous Citizen" in a posthumous award honoring his bravery.