'Overwatch' news: Chinese New Year event goes live next week; game director explains what PTR is for

"Overwatch" is coming up with a new seasonal event starting next week.

Even though this year's Chinese New Year is on Jan. 28, "Overwatch" won't be making its avid players wait for the next seasonal event. The game's official Twitter account announced Tuesday that a new Lunar New Year event called "Year of the Rooster" kicks off on Jan. 24. The tweet comes with a short clip featuring fan-favorite character Mei sporting a Chinese traditional costume that is fit for the event.

While Blizzard has yet to reveal further details about what the event will involve, it does seem to feature new skins. "Year of the Rooster" is the latest in a series of events which has been celebrated in the game, including Rio Olympics, Christmas, and Halloween. Unfortunately, Blizzard has already said that no Easter or Valentine's Day events are coming.

On other related news, the developer is reportedly exploring the possibility of giving out rewards for players using the game's public test realm (PTR). In the latest developer update video from Blizzard, game director Jeff Kaplan shared an overview of the PTR and answered some of the most common questions about it. Kaplan also explained that the PTR's main purpose is to make sure the game runs smoothly, instead of just gathering feedback.

"For us to put incentives on the PTR is something we're looking into, so it's not off the table; it's just a little complicated," he said. Kaplan went on to say that the idea of giving PTR players rewards was actually a suggestion from players themselves. He added that Blizzard is now considering giving out loot boxes or some portion of experience for players who participate in the PTR.

"Those ideas, while very cool, would take development time to implement," he added. "And right now we wrestle with, is the best way to spend our time engineering features for the PTR so players have more incentive [to play on it]," Kaplan went on to say.