Overwatch’s upcoming omnic detective hero has been changed to a Damage hero.
Blizzard Entertainment has confirmed the name of Overwatch’s upcoming 55th playable hero: Hudson. The omnic detective character was originally revealed to be a Support hero, only for it to be revealed this week that he will now be a Damage hero.
The news was relayed by associate game director Alec Dawson, during a livestream with content creators for the game.
Is Hero 55 Support or Damage in Overwatch?
During a livestream with content creators Emongg and Flats, Overwatch’s game director Aaron Keller and associate game director Alec Dawson announced that the game’s hotly-anticipated next hero is now a Damage hero instead of Support, following “a bit of a pivot.”
Hero 55 was originally announced to be a Support hero, which Blizzard maintained to be the case up until September this year at the very least, when it explicitly stated as such:
However, Alec Dawson confirmed that the character has since been shifted over to the Damage role:
“The core mechanic and the thing that we were really falling in love with on this hero didn’t really match with being a support, and we kind of leaned into the things we loved the most about the hero, and it definitely fits DPS a lot better.”
Keller added that there had been a “pivot,” surrounding the character during development, and also let slip that his name is Hudson. Dawson also confirmed that the character “has a very fun accent, I’ll say that. I’m allowed to say that.”
The official Overwatch account has since confirmed the role change, and new hero name:
However, the change has not gone down without controversy among the community. Some players were looking forward to a new omnic Support hero to follow Zenyatta, while others note that the game has added an overwhelming number of Damage characters this year alone. One reply to the above post reads: “In the last 2 years we got 4 supports, 2 tanks and 7 dps, from the 10 heroes released this year half were dps…”
Multiple posts on Overwatch’s subreddit reacting to the change also reflect negative sentiments and general confusion from the community, as the game’s new slate of 2026 heroes now only features an overwhelming majority of Damage heroes. Some also note that the game would have finally offered players the change to compose a fully omnic team if Hudson had been a Support character:
- Tank: Ramattra or Orisa
- Damage: Shion, Bastion, or Echo
- Support: Zenyatta
Blizzard Entertainment has not officially announced Hudson’s ability kit, but we can expect more details for the hero to roll out in the coming weeks.
