If you happen to be an Overwatch fan and live in the New York area, you might want to visit Nintendo New York next week. In honor of Overwatch finally coming to the Nintendo Switch, the store is hosting an event focused around the popular title. The first 150 fans to sign up for the event will partake in an exclusive meet-and-greet with some of the voice cast behind their favorite fighters.
You can sign up for this Overwatch event on the official Nintendo NY website. Even if you don’t make a reservation, you can attend the launch event from 4:30-5:30 p.m. ET. The lucky 150 will meet the voice actors between 5:30-7:00 p.m. ET.
Gather your team and head to #NintendoNYC Wednesday, 10/16 from 4:30PM – 5:30PM (without reservation) and from 5:30PM – 7PM (reservation required) for Blizzard’s launch event celebrating #Overwatch: Legendary Edition releasing on #NintendoSwitch! pic.twitter.com/uS9fOIESe6
— Nintendo NY (@NintendoNYC) October 8, 2019
Why Diablo came first
Blizzard has actually wanted to port Overwatch onto the Nintendo Switch since the console came out. Director Jeff Kaplan talked with The Verge earlier this month about some of the challenges that came with getting it onto the system.
Literally the day the Switch came out, we were thinking about it. I remember immediately talking to people around the office saying, ‘What would it take for us to be here? It was much easier to get Diablo on the device than it was to get Overwatch. And, like everything we do here, we wanted to make sure to do it right. It was just a long process of figuring out how to handle the development in a way that we felt like we would be very proud of the end product.
The elephant in the room
Of course, it’s hard to talk about anything related to Blizzard right now without considering the recent backlash against the company. This Overwatch meet-and-greet was likely planned months before Blizzard banned Hearthstone player Blitzchung for speaking in support of Hong Kong during an interview. Still, the timing of all this is certainly poor. Nintendo’s announcement tweet shows numerous replies from people voicing their decision to avoid this event rather than support anything Blizzard.
Even so, Overwatch will likely make a nice fit on the Nintendo Switch, giving players yet another platform option for this game. There will no doubt be plenty of people still willing to play Blizzard titles despite the company’s recent actions, and this gives them a way to play Overwatch on the go. As a result, it will likely prove yet another successful port when it launches for the Switch on Oct 15.
