One of the most exciting things to come out of this week's Gamescom is Blizzard's announcement of a new map for "Overwatch." Earlier this week, the studio showcased a new map called Junkertown during Gamescom and even let some attendees sample it. Blizzard hasn't announced a specific release date for the map just yet, but it will be heading to the PTR before officially arriving at the game. There's one thing that players noticed in the new Junkertown map that was peculiar.
'Take-out' instead of 'take-away'
In the United States, when food is brought out of a restaurant, people often say "take-out" or "to-go." In Australia, the case is different, as people often say "take-away." The new "Overwatch" map called Junkertown features some sort of a restaurant with a sign that says "take-out," which is somewhat inappropriate given that Junkertown is set in the Australian Outback.
Blizzard issues apology for language mix up
According to Gamespot, "Overwatch" game director Jeff Kaplan took to Reddit to officially apologize for using the term "take-out" instead of "takeaway" in the Australian Junkertown map. He wrote, "I'd like to offer a direct apology to the entire country of Australia. Please forgive our cultural insensitivity. We will fix this in an upcoming patch (the sign travesty will most likely go live for some period before being fixed)." He even joked that American coffee sizes are all too large and admitted, "We're learning....trying, over here." Rest assured, Blizzard will release a patch to fix the sign to read "take-away" instead.
Controversy surrounding Junkertown voice over
The "culturally insensitive" sign in Junkertown isn't the only thing that caught players' attention. According to Kotaku, some "Overwatch" players noticed that the voice over in the trailer for Junkertown said "they thought they could take our land and give it to the machines," which may be a touchy subject given Australia's history with indigenous tribes.
Jeff Kaplan did not comment on this, however.
More shorts arriving August 23
To introduce the new Junkertown map to "Overwatch," Blizzard released a short animated film titled "Junkertown: The Plan" and featuring Junkrat and Roadhog. The studio is also set to release more animated shorts, in the form of "The Last Bastion" and "Infiltration," which is set to arrive on August 23. "Overwatch" is now playable on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
