Today in treating your players right, Blizzard is honoring an Overwatch fan who died before the game was released. Hongyu Wu may not have had the chance to play Overwatch but he is now a part of the game he so loved.
According to a post on Reddit by user Rebirdhk, Overwatch's newest patch brought more than just Competitive Play to the game. Check out the control center map of the Lijiang Tower and space suits will come into view, one of which is in red and features the Chinese characters "宏宇" that stand for "Hongyu." Behind the red space suit are the characters "英雄不朽" that translate to "Heroes never die."
The tribute honors the death of Hongyu Wu, a Chinese Overwatch fan, who on May 23 - the day before the game was set to launch - sacrificed his life to prevent criminal elements from prevailing. According to sources, he spotted someone stealing his schoolmate's motorbike so he gave chase riding his own. Unfortunately, Wu collided with the culprit during the chase, suffering severe internal bleeding. The thief was caught later on but Wu succumbed to his injuries.
Aside from Blizzard, the city government of Guangzhou also recognized Wu's heroic efforts by posthumously giving him the "Courageous Citizen" award.
Wu was 20 years old.
In the same Reddit post, user czhihong shared a screenshot of a chat group Wu was part of. There, he is seen obviously excited about Overwatch's launch. Wu's last post has him asking his friends if they have bought the game and saying that he bought Overwatch's RMB 198 version since he can't afford to get the Deluxe Edition.
The same screenshot shows messages from friends in the group after the incident.
It's been just a little over a month since Overwatch launched and it has already amassed more than 10 million players. New maps and characters are underway but PC players can now experience Competitive Play, thanks to game's newest update. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players, however, will have to wait some more before the update reaches their consoles.
Blizzard has not revealed specific dates on when the PS4 and Xbox One updates will roll out and no specific reasons were given as to why the new patch did not arrive simultaneously to all platforms. A Battle.net community manager, however, did say that they are hard at work refining the process.
