Overwatch fan unearths fun Diablo 3 Easter egg in two-year-old map

An Overwatch fan has unearthed a cool nod to Diablo 3 in a map that's over two-years old.

It turns out if you break the barrels in the final area of the Blizzard World map, there's a small chance you'll get a "legendary drop". That is, you'll see the legendary drop visual effect from Blizzard's action role-playing game Diablo 3.

The discovery was made by redditor Owlero, who posted a video of the find - and how it compares to Diablo 3 for reference - on the Overwatch sub (thanks, Dotesports).

The Blizzard World theme park map hit Overwatch in January 2018, which means it's taken over two years for this Easter egg to be highlighted by the game's community. But it was signalled by Blizzard itself in a Polygon article published in 2017. In the article, principal level designer Dave Adams said: "there's another Diablo reference hidden in that game's section of the map. Players who destroy some of the barrels there might hear a legendary item drop sound now and then."

In a reddit post, Owlero said they found the Easter egg accidentally during a match, and then replicated it for the video. Were they the first to discover it? "I can't be the only one to have found it," Owlero admits. Whatever the case, it certainly looks like this is the first time this particular Easter egg has been showcased online.

Overwatch is packed with a huge number of references, not just to Blizzard games but to popular culture. The game's community has spent some time trying to find them all, but in a November 2019 interview with Game Informer, Overwatch chief developer Jeff Kaplan revealed there is one Easter egg in the game players haven't found that refers to a quest he made when he was a quest designer on World of Warcraft.

With Overwatch 2 in the works, expect the hunt to begin anew when that game finally comes out.

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