While Hero 31 is Sigma, an awesome main tank who uses the power of gravity to protect his team and deal damage to enemies.
Blizzard even released Sigma to the Overwatch PTR for Brandon ‘Seagull’ Larned’s birthday, so he could play against other people, but Jeff took some time to mention Mauga as well.
Mauga will be here… eventually
While making a guest appearance on Seagull’s stream from Blizzard HQ, Jeff said that Mauga was initially meant to be Overwatch’s 31st hero.
“We really didn’t want to betray the character of Mauga and we didn’t want to betray the game design,” Jeff told Seagull. “So we started brainstorming ‘well what is a character that makes more sense for the abilities that are going on here?”
Instead of just shoving Mauga into a role with abilities that might not fit his brute-force approach we learned about in the “What You Left Behind” short story, Overwatch developers came up with a whole new hero – Sigma.
“We came up with this concept of this astrophysicist, you know? We really wanted to play with gravity a lot,” Jeff explained. “How cool would it be if we had a villian, you know a member of Talon, who isn’t even aware that he’s hanging out with Talon.”
“He’s almost being, it’s almost tragic, he’s being manipulated by them and used by them, they see him as a weapon of mass destruction.”
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Jeff revealed that Mauga WAS in development, however the playstyle of what-became Sigma was too "intelligent" for Mauga's aggro personality.
"Big plans" for Mauga, basically confirms he'll be a hero one day. pic.twitter.com/1i4U6qzn7C
— Your Overwatch (@YourOverwatchYT) July 23, 2019
When can we try out Sigma?
Sigma is currently available to play on the Overwatch PTR along with a brand new patch that includes updates for the new 2-2-2 role queue system as well.
The newest Overwatch hero will probably spend at least a few weeks on the PTR before he makes it to the main game and console, which gives players who can plenty of time practice.
So, even though we’ll have to wait awhile longer for Mauga to come out, at least we can hop on the PTR and try out Sigma right away.