Overwatch 2 streams interrupted with cryptic messages ahead of Season 6

Jeremy Gan
Sombra swiping on her computer screens

Overwatch 2 appears to be teasing a potential ARG as cryptic messages have begun appearing in sponsored streams in the build to Season 6: Invasion. 

As Season 5 of Overwatch 2 slowly wraps up, Blizzard is preparing for what they describe as their biggest content drop to date, Overwatch: Invasion. Coming with the new update are the highly anticipated PvE story missions, alongside a new Hero and a Core Game Mode to boot. 

And as more information slowly releases on Invasion, Blizzard has seen fit to sponsor some of Overwatch’s biggest streamers in anticipation of the upcoming drop. 

But the sponsorship has a twist, as the sponsored streams contain cryptic messages and videos which intermittently interrupt the broadcasts. 

Seemingly appearing thanks to a provided overlay from the Overwatch 2 devs, the brief videos show a mysterious individual appearing to hack a computer overlay, connecting to the system to some extent.

Other interruptions also see a massive string of numbers appear on screen at random times as the streamers play the game. 

Mega-popular figures like Shroud, and Overwatch community favorites like Super, Flats, and KarQ, were all part of it to begin with on July 25, with some of them appearing to be genuinely surprised by the sudden interruption. 

Many viewers and fans are already speculating these hacks to be part of an Augmented Reality game as this would not be the first time Blizzard deployed an ARG to promote an upcoming event. 

Ahead of Sombra’s release in 2016, the devs inserted a string of text in Ana’s origin story video which teased fans. And as the community decoded each cipher, the devs kept adding more with every new media release. 

Of course, it all eventually added up to Sombra’s reveal. As for what the new ciphers mean, fans will need to decode them for themselves to find out what Blizzard has in store for them. 

About The Author

Jeremy is a writer on the Australian Dexerto team. He studied at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, and graduated with a Bachelors in Journalism. Jeremy mainly covers esports such as CS:GO, Valorant, Overwatch, League of Legends, and Dota 2, but he also leans into gaming and entertainment news as well. You can contact Jeremy at jeremy.gan@dexerto.com or on Twitter @Jer_Gan