When Overwatch 2 decided to launch Pride Month content for the shooter, it did so selectively to accommodate countries the studio claimed had “laws that aren’t tolerant of LGBT content” like Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Lithuania. However, as we noted at the time, while Hungary and Lithuania have indeed pushed such laws forth, Poland and Romania have not.
This set off a firestorm among the playerbase, with many rightly calling out that Pride isn’t only for those who are privileged enough to be open in their country. After a week of the tinderbox being lit, director Aaron Keller announced on Twitter that the Pride event has now been made available to Polish and Romanian players.
The update that unlocked Pride for these countries went out without maintenance, though Keller did point out that players would need to relog into the game for the change to take effect. “Thank you to those players for their patience and feedback. We’ll continue working to expand representation both in and out of OW2,” Keller writes.
We are excited to expand all of the new Pride cosmetics and Midtown update to players in Poland & Romania. Thank you to those players for their patience and feedback. We’ll continue working to expand representation both in and out of OW2!
— Aaron Keller (@aaronkellerOW) June 9, 2023
