Overwatch Is Getting Its Own LEGO Sets

Blizzard Entertainment's team-focused first-person shooter seems to be maintaining its popularity in the mainstream space, so much so that LEGO has managed to strike up a deal with Blizzard in order to make various LEGO sets based on the Overwatch universe.

The news came courtesy of a report from The Brick Fan, a LEGO fan site, which is reporting that Activision Blizzard signed a partnership deal with LEGO Group, which will see LEGO making Overwatch bricks based on the popular video game that came out back in 2016.

There will reportedly be multiple sets with varying price points designed to lure in both casual LEGO fans and hardcore LEGO fans. There are no details on exactly which sets will be based on what properties from Overwatch, but I'm almost pretty sure that you can expect the main character, Tracer, along with Widowmaker to make the cut, along with other popular characters such as Reaper, D-Va, Mei, and Soldier 76 to have LEGO iterations made based on their likenesses.

When it comes to stages and other properties, things get a little trickier. How exactly do you build a LEGO set based on the stages from Overwatch? Most are designed around PvP chokeholds and capture points, which aren't usually the best motifs for a LEGO set. However, I'm sure the craftsmen will figure something out.

There's some support behind this line in the comment section, but, surprisingly, a lot of people actually wanted LEGO to capture the Warcraft license from Blizzard Entertainment. Unfortunately for those LEGO fans, the Warcraft license is held by Mega Bloks, much like the Halo license is also occupied by Mega Bloks because LEGO passed on the property due to it featuring guns and violence.

It's a little strange that despite LEGO thinking the sci-fi shooter series Halo was too violent for its brand that it didn't have any qualms about Overwatch, which is also themed around violent conflict as well, with a bunch of characters who use guns and explosives and hooks and machine-gun toting mechs. I suppose it has to do with the fact that Halo is a far more serious looking sci-fi game and actually has a very involved and mature world, whereas Overwatch is oftentimes compared to Pixar films and most people consider it something that appeals to kids, which sort of makes sense why LEGO would hop on the license.

Overwatch joins other video game properties in the building block genre, including Microsoft and Mojang's Minecraft, along with Prince of Persia, which strangely also received a LEGO set. I suppose LEGO was willing to forgive the M-rated iterations of the series?

Anyway, there was no release date set on when the new sets will arrive based on Overwatch, but the news is most apropos given that Blizzard just recently rolled out the anniversary details for the game, which will run from the end of May into the first half of June just into the start of E3. So, for people who really love the first-person shooter and also have a big fixation of building out their LEGO libraries, this is likely very good news.