Keller says that the devs "want this entire year to feel like a celebration of Overwatch."
Overwatch’s 10th anniversary event has already had a rough first week, with players criticising everything from the reward grind to the lack of returning cosmetics. Now, Blizzard has officially responded, with Overwatch Game Director Aaron Keller outlining a series of changes coming to the event over the next two weeks.
The response follows heavy community backlash surrounding the anniversary celebration. Players had expected a larger-scale event for Overwatch’s 10-year milestone, especially with the game’s huge backlog of limited skins and cosmetics. Instead, much of the criticism focused on anniversary loot boxes containing recoloured skins, sprays, and older cosmetics, alongside the amount of matches needed to unlock all rewards.
A separate point of frustration came from comparisons to the Chinese version of the anniversary event, which appeared to offer more generous rewards, including access to older seasonal battle pass skins not currently available elsewhere.
Ovrewatch Game Director Aaron Keller says Overwatch anniversary criticism is “fair”
In a series of posts on X, Keller directly addressed the backlash and acknowledged player disappointment surrounding the event.
“Hey all. We’ve been reading and watching reactions to the anniversary event this week, and they’re fair,” Keller wrote. “Ten years of Overwatch is a huge milestone, and we want this entire year to feel like a celebration of Overwatch.”
Keller also teased additional celebrations and rewards planned across future seasons. “While the current Anniversary event is a one-off, we absolutely want to continue delivering goodness throughout this special year,” he said. He also acknowledged player feedback surrounding the types of rewards being offered. “We also agree that rewards broadly can be more than loot boxes, and we will share more details on other anniversary celebration elements when we have updates down the road.”
What is changing in the Overwatch anniversary event?
The biggest immediate change is the reduction in how many matches players need to complete to unlock all 15 Anniversary loot boxes. Previously, many players estimated that the event required close to 100 matches to fully complete. Blizzard is now reducing that requirement to 60 matches total, with wins counting as double progress.
“In the immediate term, for Weeks 2 and 3 of this Anniversary event, we're increasing the number of community loot boxes: doubling in Week 2 and tripling in Week 3. And reducing the total number of games to earn all 15 Anniversary Loot Boxes to 60 (wins count as double),” Keller wrote.
Blizzard is also increasing the amount of community loot boxes earned during the event. Week 2 rewards will be doubled, while Week 3 rewards will be tripled.
During the final week of the event, all players who log in will also “receive a 10 Year Anniversary Loot Box containing [four] guaranteed Legendary skins. In total, the 10-year event guarantees [ten] Legendary skins.”
Overwatch Season 3 anniversary plans teased
Keller also used the thread to tease a larger anniversary celebration extending beyond the current event. “Looking ahead, we’re also planning an additional season-long event in Season 3, with even more rewards, expanding the base level of earnable rewards in our weekly Play N Games tracker, while working on other ideas for later in the year,” he said.
At the same time, Keller acknowledged that future content would not necessarily change how players feel about the current anniversary event itself. “I understand that future rewards don’t make this specific event bigger, but I hope it gives some context for how we're thinking about this year as a whole.”
Aside from the tenth-year anniversary rewards, Overwatch had recently announced a collaboration with Fortnite, bringing Tracer, Mercy, Genji, and D.Va to the island.
On top of that, a collaboration with acclaimed Japanese pop duo, Yoasobi had been announced last Friday (15 May), where the artist will release an Overwatch edition for their first-ever vinyl release, featuring “THE BOOK for,” which will release on 26 June.
