The Overwatch 2 Pleasure occasion is now stay, and together with the affirmation that two extra heroes are queer and a group of themed participant banners and icons, Blizzard has reskinned an NYC-based map in order that it appears to be like prefer it’s set in the course of a Pleasure parade.
Learn Extra: Overwatch 2’s Pleasure Occasion Is An Earnest Begin
However the map doesn’t simply have rainbow-colored walkways and LGBTQIA+ flags—it additionally, notably, doesn’t have cops. First identified in a video shared by Overwatch content material creator Niandra, the Pleasure model of the Midtown map has reskinned the cop automobiles parked in sure areas, turning them into nondescript SUVs.
Kotaku has independently confirmed that the police SUVs are actually painted a comfortable blue-green slightly than sporting police colours, and different automobiles across the map have little Pleasure indicators on high of them. Curiously, the official artwork launched by Blizzard for the Overwatch Pleasure occasion, which options the entire official queer heroes on the Midtown Pleasure map, seems to have one of many unique cop automobiles within the background. Kotaku reached out to Blizzard for remark.
It is a main transfer from the Overwatch crew, because the presence of cops at Pleasure occasions has been an enormous level of rivalry for parade organizers and attendees. In 2021, New York Metropolis Pleasure banned police from marching within the parade till not less than 2025, citing how the presence of officers can usually be “threatening, and at instances, harmful” to these in the neighborhood slightly than reassuring. Organizers additionally stated they’d focus extra of the occasion’s price range on educated group responders and volunteers slightly than utilizing the New York Police Division for safety and security.
After NYC Pleasure made the announcement, different occasions throughout america adopted swimsuit, banning police departments from formally marching of their parades.
The choice to reskin the cop automobiles was possible not made flippantly, particularly when members of the Overwatch dev crew labored laborious to have a “substantial” Pleasure occasion this yr, in accordance with a tweet from senior author and narrative designer Justin Groot.
Learn Extra: Overwatch 2 Continues Franchise Custom Of Placing Characters In Cop Skins
“No police at delight” is a motion inside the LGBTQIA+ group, one rooted within the 1969 Stonewall riots and the violence police enacted in opposition to that group and spanning acts of police brutality in opposition to marginalized people that also happen as we speak. “Pleasure ought to be secure and welcoming for all of us, however police participation excludes these of us with destructive experiences of police and policing,” reads the official No Police at Pleasure web site.
It’s nice to see Overwatch 2 quietly eradicating one thing that feels so antithetical to the essence of Pleasure, particularly because the sport has continued so as to add cop skins for its characters regardless of protestations from gamers.
