That kinda assumes they can make 5v5 balance be mostly correct on day 1, without any massive flaws.
I’m not really confident in that.
There should be plenty of hype over new heroes, new maps, new game modes, and a revamped game engine. Along with the PVE.
But whatever positive benefit they have with PVP secrecy, would be wiped out completely if the 5v5 balance is fundamentally flawed. And if they can’t hook people into the game in the first 3 weeks, they might as well not bother releasing Overwatch 2. Since that initial hype surge will be mostly gone by then.
It doesn’t have to be I think, I don’t think anyone thinks OW1 was balanced or near it on release either. Maybe arguably easier since there is less heroes but I think a lot of people were still exploring and learning the game then so balance wasn’t set in stone. I think they just want the “newness” of it to have an impression more than the state of it. Of course, it’ll be difficult since the games been out and we will gauge our prior experiences and expectations to what we think it should be like, but for a lot of returning or lot of new players, it’ll be a fresh experience that would be difficult for the rest of us to make them hate even if we found it poor in balance. (Unless they really depend on the reviews of others)
their initial idea was to relaunch the franchise with “2” not only introducing PVE, but also to clearly say “forget it’s the OW you knew, this will now work”.
but we can also read another version of this statement: “you have bothered us with your complaints, we will redo the game from scratch and if you like it ok, and if you don’t like it … bye bye”. honestly it’s a choice that I would have made too. the game eventually had to admit it had done some nonsense from its day one (free pick, zero composition limits etc.).
in any case … yes, I would agree to this compromise. if only because activision puts a deadline on the franchise just because it wants to make money with OwL again. It would be a shame to see poor quality in the PVE department due to such a rush from Activision. and said very honestly: it would already be a win for the franchise to show its new rules from now on without second thoughts.
only problem: people might think about doing some review bombing for “false pibblicity” on Blizzcon 2019 in not finding the pve after seeing that the “2” has arrived. and frankly I have already seen how the review bombings have led Blizzard to ignore their games instead of trying to raise them from criticism (W3 Regorfed or even Diablo Immortal. no offense but apart from the bad Blizzcon 2018, until I try this mobile game I can’t say anything about it. it makes it worse that Wyatt Cheng is still in the franchise!).
We know 5v5 will be good. 99% of all Overwatch complaining right now is about double shield. The whole point of 5v5 is to fix that because double shield always inevitably comes back if you give any of the shield characters a shield that isn’t paper thin but if you do give them a paper thin shield they feel crappy to play as.
Not sure if you are aware, but there is a workshop/custom game code floating about that does this. Flats and some other streamers did this for content a while ago (think it was ~3-4 months ago), but I can’t find the code in Flats’ video description. It might be lurking in one of the other streamers content. In case you wanted to test it out yourself.
They don’t want to. They know the feedback will be overwhelmingly negative and they refuse to consider that their idea will make the game worse. Queue times will increase as well after the first few weeks. It will be a complete trainwreck.
Oh, I completely agree that workshop code doesn’t have nearly enough changes to make 5v5 work. However, it does contain the changes we do know about which informs us about what the issues currently are for balancing it; granted, this information is outdated at this point.
The pve part will be this. Pvp will in no way be fresh as it was for OW first dropping. At the end of the day it is still the same game. Now with one less tank. Sure the meta will change but that has happened before and didn’t make the game feel new.
5v5 in OW1 would affect the hype. It just cant work. One huge reason why, is that unlike the first game, OW2 is build around natural cover. So, 5v5 in OW1’s maps would not be fun. The first point would still be easily lost in some maps. One less teammate in OW1 would mean it’d be easier to push through or defend.
Also, the smurf accounts & no MMR reset will ruin it too.
Meanwhile, an actual OW2 beta wouldnt have those problems.
What do you think would happen to OW2’s servers at Day 1 if there was no beta to test them out? People wouldnt be able to play Online because too many people would be logging in at once, then the game would need server maintenance. That would definitely ruin the hype.
And before you say we’d have the Campaign Mode, considering the circumstances around OW2 going for a Summer 2022 release date, there’s a huge chance the Campaign Mode will be missing at Day 1(or they’d pull a Halo 6 & not have Co-op at Day 1), in favor of Multiplayer so the OWL can get going & appease the investors and team owners.
There’s no logical reason to believe me, but I guarantee you there’s multiple devs losing leisure time thinking and maybe even testing this stuff, just to be shut down by lacking, careless, shortsighted leadership.
They can’t do that, it would be too much work. They already talked about it.
And shouldn’t they just focus on ow2 anyway? Instead of worrying so much, you should enjoy ow as it is right now, while you can.