Overwatch devs tease Winter Wonderland event & “awesome” PTR patch

The Overwatch developers have outlined their plans for the rest of December 2020 including the upcoming Winter Wonderland event and a new PTR patch.

December 10 saw the final Overwatch hero balance update of the year with Reinhardt and D.Va receiving some large buffs while Baptiste got hit with a nerf. Even if these changes end up being a bit too strong, players are going to have to live with them until mid-January.

In a forum post by Community Manager Josh Nash, it was revealed that there wouldn’t be any further hero balance patches for the rest of 2020.

“As we approach the Holiday season, our patch cycle will be slowing down a bit to allow the team to spend time with their families,” he revealed.

However, this doesn’t mean that the game will go without updates. “We still have a few patches coming your way this month, so be on the lookout!” he assured. “Winter Wonderland is just around the corner and we’ve got an awesome PTR coming up as well.”

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The Winter Wonderland update is likely to be coming on Tuesday, December 15 as all the previous events have begun on a Tuesday. The event features an assortment of Christmas-themed skins and other cosmetics in addition to a couple of limited-time modes with Mei’s Snowball Offensive and Yeti Hunt.

It’s unclear what exactly the “awesome” PTR patch will be. The PTR is used to test non-balance changes or larger game functions such as the upcoming Priority Pass system or new heroes.

One possibility is that a new map or reworks of Paris and Horizon Lunar Colony are finally going to see the light of day, but nothing is set in stone yet. While new heroes aren’t coming out until the release of Overwatch 2, maps aren’t off-limits.

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As for when fans can expect to see the next Experimental Mode for testing, Nash addressed that as well saying, “We will work hard to get an Experimental patch up within the first few weeks of January, after which point, we’ll continue our regular cadence of balance patches.”

Of course, come February at BlizzCon, Blizzard does plan to share some big news on Overwatch 2. So even though there won’t be any big updates to heroes until the new year, 2021 could end up being huge for Overwatch fans.

Until then, we can only wait and see what the future holds for Overwatch.