Unlike the previous PTR updates that came out as official statements on Blizzard's forums or announcements made by head game developers, "Overwatch" update pushed out to their Public Test Region arrived without any warning or fanfare. There are now floating health bars over each character, making it easier for spectators and commentators to track the current physical state of each individual player.

This marks a huge deal for Blizzard Entertainment, as it has been pushing to increase their popularity as an eSports title. Digital Trends even points out that "Overwatch" has been billed as an eSports platform "from the very beginning." With the previous set-up, spectators were hard-pressed to follow the action shot-for-shot, especially since Overwatch is a frenetic, strategy/shooter game.

In-Depth Health Bars. The beauty of the latest feature is how extensive it is as far as individual status is concerned. The floating health bars give casual viewers the full read-out: current health, current shields and armor status, and even buffs. By giving spectators better overall view of who's winning and who's lagging behind, Express points out that the game has been made "more accessible to watch,".

Coming Soon. For now, the new health bar feature has been rolled out exclusively for the "Overwatch" PTR. However, as PCGamesN points out, the fact that it wasn't announced in the latest PTR patch notes means that fans may be hearing more about it very soon.

The same article from Digital Trends suggests that lack of an announcement as part of the patch update indicates that the health bars are slated to be an add-on to the user interface, rather than brand-new code to be incorporate via patch. PCGamer even posits the feature could roll out sooner rather than expected, given that it doesn't impact game balance.

Ergo, gamers should not be surprised to find floating health bars appearing over "Overwatch" characters without warning.