'Overwatch' Sombra ARG update: Everything we know about Blizzard's rumored Nov. 1 reveal
Players of Blizzard's multiplayer shooter Overwatch are on the hunt for clues about a rumored and much-hyped new character called Sombra.
A seemingly official image of the character leaked early Tuesday morning on Reddit, so now anticipation is high for the alternate reality game to finally come to a close and for Blizzard to unveil its newest hero.
All signs pointed to a big release Nov. 1. The day came, and the game just got more confusing. As of 8:45 p.m., fans are still trying to figure out what all the clues mean. We'll lay out everything we know so far.
Overwatch Sombra ARG: Why everyone expected a big release Nov. 1
As of Tuesday evening, over 12,000 people were watching the live Reddit stream where the progress of the ARG is tracked in real time in anticipation of Sombra.
The previous stage of the ARG uncovered several pieces of documentation from within the fictional energy company LumériCo that pointed to Nov. 1 as the day a new nuclear power plant would be unveiled near Dorado — and that Sombra and Los Muertos gang would attempt to disrupt it.
So what happened on Nov. 1? Here's what Overwatch Sombra ARG players figured out
On Tuesday evening, when players logged in as MJimenez (the LumériCo security chief) on the LumériCo site, the "Admin" page — which previously displayed a static set of dials — showed an updated version of the page with an interactive panel at the bottom.
Eventually, players discovered a certain set of various commands to enter into the panel at the bottom of the page. In most cases, the answers to each of the window's prompts were references to details in the game itself or details in the emails uncovered through the ARG:
Once the correct commands were entered into the panel, the dials on the page began to increase slowly over time from 0-100% over the course of several hours, as if the nuclear plant were building up to some kind of melt down.
Additionally, there was a skull icon (the one associated with Sombra since the beginning of the ARG) with a number beside it in the upper right corner of the page. This number constantly increased as the page was refreshed. Here's an example of what that page looked like when the dials were at about 63%:
When the dials reached 100% at approximately 8:00 p.m. Eastern, the page displayed a sort of glitching effect and a new Sombra skull icon appeared in the upper left corner of the screen.
And on the LumériCo home page, a new pop-up window with a message from Sombra and a similar glitching effect now appears.
Translated to English, the text below the Sombra skull says:
Good job, friends. I would not have done it without your help. Anyway, I got the resources needed for my next hit - they will love it.
The gift from Sombra referenced in the text above appears to be a new Día de los Muertos spray currently live in the PC version of Overwatch. It is the same skull that appeared in the upper left corner of LumériCo's site.
What happens next in the Sombra ARG?
There appear to be some new clues pointing to the Volskaya map, which is located in Russia, but it's unclear exactly whether this is a new phase of the ARG, or if it will keep quiet until Sombra is unveiled.
Some kind of link between Sombra and Russia makes a certain amount of sense, though. Some have noted that the robot on which Sombra is standing in the alleged leaked image of her on Reddit looks much like the Svyatogor mechs that can be seen walking around in the background on Volskaya.
We might have to wait a couple days to know for sure. It's likely Blizzard will officially unveil and discuss Sombra at BlizzCon starting Nov. 4.
Nov. 2, 2016, 1:26 p.m.: This story has been updated.
