Lately, there has been much ado about certain “freefalls” in the gaming industry. Whether it be key publishers or developers “not living up to their potential” or video game franchises going from “beloved” to “reviled,” there are certainly cases to choose from and wonder how things got here. Easily, one of the biggest ones is the freefall that is Overwatch 2. The sequel to one of the greatest titles of all time, and one of Blizzard’s most successful entities ever, was so mind-numbingly broken at launch and beyond that, you might have gotten the impression that it wasn’t getting updated anymore due to the “lack of talk” about it.
In a talk with GamesRadar+, director Aaron Keller admitted that the franchise needed to “evolve” more, especially due to pressure from a certain Marvel title in the same genre that is dominating in a way that Blizzard’s title used to:
“There is pressure on the Overwatch team, and a lot of it is internal. It’s [asking], ‘how do we make the best possible game that we can?’ And we’ve been feeling it for a while.
You know, a lot of the things that we’re announcing for seasons 15 and 16, like perks and Stadium, they’re things that have been in development for Overwatch for quite some time. And I think what’s driving that is, when we look at our game, we feel like it’s either missing something or it hasn’t evolved as much as it should have.”
That is an understatement of near (Marvel) cosmic proportions. When Overwatch 2 launched, Blizzard focused on microtransactions and Battle Passes more than ever, and many promised modes, including one PVE mode, were full-on scrapped after launch. If you ask Keller, though, while he acknowledges the criticisms, he says the only thing the team can do is move forward with things:
“They thought that the game was going to be something that it didn’t end up being. I get the criticism, but from the team’s point of view, the only thing that we can do about that now is to make the best version of this game that we can.”
Whether Blizzard can do that is up for debate. After the Marvel title’s debut, the player count for Blizzard’s title dropped on Steam by over 40%! Sure, its “Rival” has had a few bumps in the row, but nothing to the level of Blizzard’s game. So long as it’s around and kicking butt, there’s very little reason to play the OG outside of loyalty.
