So I think everyone has suspicions now that this is something they are seriously considering to some extent between the pickable passives experiment and now this junkenstein mode. Like they went above and beyond with the Junkenstein mode, like they could’ve just made 1 rudimentary menu to pick your abilities in, but not only was this menu very nice and detailed, but then there are also ways to view your teammates abilities, see the abilities of enemies during the killcam, and view your abilities mid-match. None of this is necessary and indicates to me that this mode is likely part of a more serious test, especially since this concept is something they put in a more serious experimental mode a few months prior. It’s also I think getting pretty positive feedback, like pickable passives is the only quick play hacked event that didn’t cause a miniature fan riot and people are loving this arcade mode
But all that being said, is this something that could realistically work in the main game? Now obviously they couldn’t be as extreme as in junkenstein, but they also couldn’t be as mundane as in the pickable passives mode. It worked well in similar games. Tf2 has a mechanic where each class has 3 or 4 weapon/item slots and each slot has different but usually similar weapons entirely, for example the demoman’s 1st slot defaults to grenade launcher, but if you want a more aim centric playstyle you can also swap it for a grenade launcher that is more accurate but only does damage on direct hit, or you can really shake it up and replace it with a cannon, or you can even just equip no weapon at all and opt for boots that give a passive stats up. Tf2 is limited to 9 classes however, so you can get used to what to expect from each fairly reasonably, and it’s a much more casual game so you don’t get enraged if you for instance die because you go into an encounter not know the soldier had the rocket launcher equipped that would do enough damage on kill you in one hit at your current hp. Of course there are a dozen different ways to do customization, this is just one example of a game where it works really well. That ability to tell what precisely you’re dealing with is vital in the current form of overwatch and even if you transparently showed the enemy’s abilities like in junknestein it is in no way reasonable to expect people to learn what build everyone has in the span of a match that can potentially end in 5 minutes on the right mode.
So I do think any form of customization would likely casualize the game. I do not think that is necessarily a bad thing, Overwatch had a huge casual audience that it lost over the year, but it would be a bigger disruption to the status quo than 5v5. Balance, readability, and still feeling like Overwatch would be massive obstacles, but the potential payoff is huge and I think it’d be the first addition that may be impactful enough to actually make the “Overwatch 2” branding feel appropriate. Still, I am very skeptical that this can work