Overwatch Will Let You "Play By Sound" With Dolby Audio Tech

Blizzard's shooter Overwatch will be the first video game to make use of Dolby's Atmos surround sound technology over headphones. Senior sound designer Scott Lawlor and software engineer Tomas Neumann made the announcment during a Game Developers Conference presentation this week, and talked about how the tech will let gamers "play by sound."

PCGamesN attended the presentation, reporting that Blizzard wanted to give players "as much information as possible," and this includes sound information. In fact, all 21 of Overwatch's heroes have their own unique footstep sounds.

Overwatch's sound cues extend beyond footsteps, too. Leveraging Atmos should help players better understand where enemies are at any point in match.

"When you play the game with [Atmos] on and you can pinpoint the Pharah flying above your head, or the sniper up on the ledge," Lawlor said, according to Eurogamer, which also attended the panel. "It adds to this fundamental goal of trying to play the game by sound."

Overwatch isn't the first game to use Atmos, however, as DICE's Star Wars Battlefront already does. However, Overwatch will be the first to support it over headphones, according to Blizzard.

The feature comes to Overwatch through its next beta update and will also be available in the game's open beta. Atmos will be exclusive to the PC version of Overwatch, however.

Overwatch launches on May 24 for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. The beta starts earlier in the month and you can read this post to get all the details about how you can get in.