The first Director’s Take of 2025 is here and we’re looking back on how changes from the past year impacted the game.
I have room to imagine they say
Okay I get it, people complained about a lack of communication! Damn! Way to show them wrong. What is this, the third post in three days?
I’m so glad to get this update!
So much great communication lately!
We’ve heard two primary complaints about 2024’s Competitive weapon reward, Jade Weapons. One of the biggest criticisms we’ve heard is how our Jade Weapon variants are getting vaulted at the end of this season. Competitive Weapons are intended to show your involvement in our Competitive Queues per year. As time goes by, you will have a different set of weapons based on how often you play comp each year. Keeping Competitive Weapons limited to the year gives them the ability to tell that story. Some of you have been hoping for a weapon skin that has a higher end look to it, and we’ve got something for 2025 that is pretty spectacular. So, while Jade Weapon Variants are going away for now, we’ve got an amazing new weapon variant to collect in 2025 that will be out of this world!
I think this is the right approach!
Keep Jade weapons exclusive to those who played competitive in 2024 as this makes them more special rather than allowing them to be earned at any point in the future!
We also ran our first 6v6 events last year and early this year. These took the form of 6v6 Role Queue, and 6v6 Min 1 Max 3. The Role Queue version accounted for nearly 10% of all play hours in the game for most of its event run.
Only 10%!
Seems quite low to me given how “loud” the enthusiasm for 2-2-2 6V6 appeared to be!
This to me indicates that the demand for a 2-2-2 mode is actually not high enough to justify putting work into such a mode for the long term future!
In my view discussions on the topic tend to favour 2-2-2/6v6 because those who are satisfied with the game as it is/5V5 have no reason to participate in such discussions!
I strongly feel that it makes no sense to return to 2-2-2 at this point when it was already established in OW1 that the mode was untenable and led to significant problems with long queue times etc!
At the same time however I wouldn’t be opposed to a separate standalone OW1 client which could include both 6v6 open queue and 2-2-2 role queue modes!
I personally feel it’s time to move on from this topic as so much time has been invested into this which could take away from other things that in my view are more important to implement!
You had more fun patting yourself on the back here then I did playing your game all year.
Last 30 Days | 19,528.7 | -5,763.1 | -22.79% | 36,182 |
---|---|---|---|---|
December 2024 | 25,291.8 | -6,965.4 | -21.59% | 48,626 |
November 2024 | 32,257.3 | -2,082.3 | -6.06% | 56,607 |
October 2024 | 34,339.6 | -1,066.5 | -3.01% | 58,217 |
September 2024 | 35,406.0 | +773.6 | +2.23% | 59,499 |
Seems like I wasn’t alone. Good work!
no significant changes in the reward system in the entirety of 2024 despite the promises in 2023.
You give us 60 cent worth of coins more for 8 weeks of grinding and have the audacity to pretend that that is a significant increase.
We are getting thousands of coins worth less rewards than what we got in OW1 with lootboxes. To think I ever supported a game and a dev team that so unappreciative to their own players makes me vomit.
i want Archive events back, I want to feel rewarded, I want to EARN the skins I unlock not buy them.
Good you guys are keeping 5v5, just need to nerf tanks, make them not raidbosses.
6v6 is plagued by Sigma ruining the mode
Quote: Looking ahead to 2025, we’re looking into how we can make all of our heroes more engaging and unique for players.
Sombra!!!
#fix sombra
[…], we’ve got an amazing new weapon variant to collect in 2025 that will be out of this world!
Galaxy weapon skin.
We want to continue bringing new heroes that can be engaging for both those of you using them and the opponents playing against them.
Just make sure to not to make yet another young girl for support. They’re not the only ones that sell skins you know.
Even if 6v6 doesn’t become the core game mode (even though I find it better in every way…) can you at least make it not arcade? I don’t want to have to play 5v5 to get dailies, weeklies, achievements, etc. If 6v6 comes back, i’m never touching the atrocity that 5v5 is again lol.
they honestly dont feel or believe this is part of the reason why no one has been playing this game, or left and never returned. Trust me when I say you are not alone. This is a huge part of what made the first game far more fun. They will never right this ship though.
we’re super excited for Season 15 and beyond.
we want to go even bigger in 2025
I know 2025 is going to be even bigger
Still hyping up disappointment i see.
we’ve got an amazing new weapon variant to collect in 2025 that will be out of this world!
That’ll be another buzzword added into my “hype-up dictionary”:
- Groundbreaking
- Exciting
- Game-changing
- Out of this world
It certainly doesn’t reflect what you see on here…
There’s definitely a demand for a mode with this team size, but it’s still uncertain how large that demand is
Yall are supposed to show up in force!!!
A reminder that this is an objective decision for the devs….not an emotional one
The Role Queue version accounted for nearly 10% of all play hours in the game for most of its event run. For reference, our Role Queued Quick Play mode accounts for roughly 35-40% of play hours (this was lower during the 6v6 tests). There’s definitely a demand for a mode with this team size, but it’s still uncertain how large that demand is.
Quite frankly I still feel like they kind of sabotaged themselves. They really didn’t undo a lot of the changes that damaged the game in the switch to 5v5, which left 6v6 still completely unbalanced, and in many cases even buggy (e.g. Roadhog’s right click doesnt even work properly).
People like myself also wanted 6v6 not just for having 1 extra player/tank per team, but for the hope that this would allow them to undo some of the awful reworks and give a better opportunity to give back a lot of what was taken away.
Not to mention, they already drove away many of the people who actually loved 6v6 and OW1, so I think it would be expected that the majority of actual play time is being just playing what they’re used to instead of trying to more experimental mode.
If 6v6 is going to be exactly what they put out for testing, then I absolutely would see it failing.
I hope the mini competitive 6v6 will prove more accurate to how the larger player base feels. My friends wouldn’t touch it past the initial game or two simply because it wasn’t Competitive.
If Blizzard cannot see that the superior version of this game is 6v6 they already lost the battle. No amount of work they do will resurrect this sinking Titanic.
5v5 = 2 less players a game. Less diversity, less outcomes, less possible team ups.
Also 1 overbuffed tank in 5v5 is just as bad as old Overwatch with the shield meta. Yea you aren’t shooting at shields but you are shooting at a pocketed tank with their health not moving. Too much of the game relies on the skill of that one position on your team as well.
GG, its been real.
Clash is going away? Lame, I like the mode
At least gone from comp anyway, which is where the mode should be the best given how fast paced it is relatove to the others
JEF!!!
You already know what I’m gonna ask so there’s no point in actually asking it. You want the link?
Well to be fair I didnt show up because what I want is not just “6v6 role queue” – I want a properly balanced mode and for them to undo many of their bad design decisions that came with 5v5. Like, not having raid tanks is a huge step up, but it’s going to take way more than that to actually pull me back in at this point.