Overwatch Having A Free Week On Xbox One, New Animated Short On Wednesday

If you own an Xbox One and have been looking for a competitive FPS to play around with for a week, Blizzard has you covered. From now until August 27, you can play Overwatch for free on the Xbox One.

Starting this Thursday, show off your heroic chops—Overwatch will be free to play through August 27: https://t.co/CpP7HG2MSX pic.twitter.com/tAuWwWAebD

— Xbox (@Xbox) August 20, 2018

Microsoft refers to this as a free weekend, which is technically true as it does encompass the weekend, just also a lot more. You do still need an Xbox Gold subscription to play, but if you're trying to kill some time or haven't tried Overwatch, the newcomer Wrecking Ball has just been introduced. Might as well take him for a spin.

Additionally, Blizzard has announced that the next Overwatch animated short will arrive on Wednesday, August 22. The last short, Honor and Glory, gave us the backstory on Reindhart and also introduced Brigitte before she was was announced as a character in the game. Previous shorts have shown the research scientist days of Mei, the battle-weary days of Bastion, and more.

Overwatch is currently available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.