Leaked Overwatch novel to expand on Orisa’s lore

Overwatch fans might be getting a chance to dive deeper into the game’s story as an Amazon listing appears to have leaked an upcoming book based on Blizzard’s FPS.

A listing for “The Hero of Numbani”, a book about Orisa creator Efi Oladele, has appeared on Amazon’s US site. The book is described as “Overwatch, Book #1”, suggesting it could be the first in an upcoming series based on the game.

The book looks set to focus on Efi, the young genius who created Orisa, and the pair’s journey toward facing Doomfist, whose attack on Numbani prompted Efi to create the Omnic hero.

“While Doomfist sows discord between humans and omnics, Efi engineers an intelligent and compassionate robot, Orisa, named after the powerful spirits who guide her people. Orisa has a lot to learn before she’s ready to defeat Doomfist, but Efi has some learning to do, too, especially when it comes to building-and being-a hero. With Doomfist rallying his forces, and the military powerless to stop him, can Efi mold Orisa into the hero of Numbani before it’s too late?”

The page currently states that the book is due to be published on May 5, 2020, although with no official announcement having been made by Blizzard it’s possible this is a placeholder date.

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According to the listing, the book is to be published by Scholastic, who specialize in children’s books, and have also previously published novels based on video games such as the Halo: Battle Born series.

New story-based content is one of the most common requests by the Overwatch community. Many fans have had their interest captured by the characters and universe of Blizzard’s FPS, but exploration of the world has been quite limited.

Fans have largely had to rely on the comic series, which was discontinued after Retribution in April 2018, the animated shorts – which, incredible as they are, require a lot of work on Blizzard’s part and therefore appear infrequently – and the few instances of the Overwatch Archives event for lore hints.

A series of novels could be the source of a deeper look into universe that many Overwatch fans have been hoping for, although with Blizzard having yet to officially make an announcement regarding the book, nothing is completely confirmed just yet.