Blizzard announces sci-fi Overwatch game

Game developer Blizzard, best known for World of Warcraft, has announced an entirely new game called Overwatch.

The game is a team-based shooter that pits squads of six players against each other for control of various maps.

The characters that players control all have different superpowers that let them fulfil different roles, such as medic or tank, in their team.

Test versions will be released in 2015 but Blizzard has not said how much it will cost.

Overwatch marks a departure for Blizzard which is best known for World of Warcraft - the long-running massively multiplayer online game - and combat game Diablo which are both set in fantasy worlds.

By contrast, Overwatch is set in the near future and revolves around small teams of super-soldiers that have individual abilities, such as teleporting, and equipment, including rocket hammers, they use to battle rival teams.

The skill in playing the game will come from combining different characters in the right way to unlock more powerful abilities, it said.

The success of the game is important to Blizzard because the numbers of people playing World of Warcraft is on a steady decline. Currently WoW has about 6.8 million subscribers, far fewer than the 12 million it enjoyed at its peak of popularity.

:story: BBC News