'Overwatch' news: Game director Jeff Kaplan confirms upcoming subtitle support; three new maps likely to arrive this year

Poster of "Overwatch."Blizzard Entertainment website

"Overwatch" will soon have subtitle support, which will greatly benefit deaf players of the acclaimed shooter game.

According to reports, an "Overwatch" player named ChaosProz made a simple request to the game's developers on Battle.net forums last year. "I'm deaf," the gamer posted. "Please provide subtitles for all voice lines." On Tuesday, game director Jeff Kaplan hinted that Blizzard Entertainment might be introducing subtitle support in the foreseeable future.

"Uprising is the first event to support subtitles," Kaplan wrote on the forum, referring to the game's latest event that included more new skins and a four-player PvE match. "We now have some of the underlying tech and systems in place to proliferate subtitle support to other parts of the game. The team is very passionate about adding subtitle support," he added.

Kaplan did not offer any word about when the subtitle support would be launched for the full game. However, since he has already announced the studio's commitment to the feature, it is likely that he will follow through on his statement.

Meanwhile, it was also revealed that three new standard maps are being developed for "Overwatch." Gamespot notes that the game director announced the news on a forum as well. He mentioned that the additional maps are already "past the initial playtesting phase." A release date for the said add-ons has yet to be finalized, but Kaplan said those maps could be released sometime this year at the earliest. Three non-standard maps are also in the works, though he did not disclose how far along they are on the project.

The game director further teased that Blizzard Entertainment is working on more new projects that fans should certainly look forward to. "We also have a few other experiments going on," Kaplan shared. "Hopefully this will satisfy some of what you're looking for," he concluded. "We want to play on these maps as badly as you guys do. We'll work as fast as we can!"

Developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment, "Overwatch" is available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC platforms.