In the game of Overwatch, the character Winston is almost as iconic as the title's actual mascot, Tracer. He's an enormous gorilla gifted with higher intelligence and a (mostly) docile demeanor who first made an appearance in the game's announcement trailer. He's also from the moon which, as far as backstories go in Overwatch, is about as implausible as it gets.
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However, a new Tweet from Blizzard's official Twitter account suggests that Winston might not be alone in having an extraterrestrial backstory.
Those familiar with Overwatch so far will understand the developers' passion for deepening the game's already involved lore. Previous events have focused on introducing new characters and settings in a manner that evolves Overwatch's story. April's uprising event, for example, launched a new game mode that expanded on the origin of Tracer while giving a first look at one of the more noteworthy conflicts of the game's Omnic crisis.
From reading the above Tweet, it seems that Blizzard has missed no opportunities in continuing this tradition. Clicking on the link will carry viewers over to a page on the official Overwatch website. On the site can be found several images depicting email exchanges from the abandoned Horizon Lunar Colony.
By reading these emails we can gather that Winston was not the only experimental subject created on the moon - he was simply one of the only successful ones. Judging by these messages, the scientists running the experiments were disappointed when the vast majority of their subjects responded negatively to gene therapy. Eventually they were almost all confined to their quarters, with one exception.
A smaller subject by the name of Hammond had gone missing (and likely taken to the ventilation systems).
What eager fans have already begun to speculate is that Hammond will likely be the next addition to the Overwatch hero roster. This is all the more probable after some players managed to connect a recent quote from Overwatch Director Jeff Kaplan to this reveal. According to Jeff:
"...there's also some really cool hero news just on the Horizon."
Whether or not this is just a coincidental name drop or a clever allusion to Hammond is hard to say, though that hasn't stopped the Overwatch community from ramping up their excitement in anticipation of another hero.
For more Overwatch news, follow the game's official Twitter account, or check out the community forums on PlayOverwatch.com.
