tl;dr: Please increase Overwatch 2’s maximum FOV to 120. 103 is too low for monitor users to maintain comfort and many can feel an effect similar to motion sickness. Current implementation gives 21:9 users an unfair advantage.
Overwatch uses 16:9 horizontal FOV with a max of 103.
Unfortunately, this is simply too low for most players on monitor setups. For reference, this is equal to approx 86 fov in Apex Legends/Source(which is measured in 4:3 horizontal fov), which is insanely low and virtually no one on Apex would ever use an FOV that low voluntarily. Apex goes up to 110 FOV, which would be equivalent to 123 FOV in Overwatch.
A comfortable FOV is determined by a users distance to their monitor combined with their monitor size. The further away the monitor, the lower FOV feels comfortable, for example, being on the couch and playing on a TV feels better on lower FOV, while playing on a monitor that’s between 1-2 feet from the users eyes would feel much more natural/comfortable on a higher FOV. OW’s 103 is so low that many players wouldn’t even use it on a couch/TV combo if they had the choice and would opt instead to increase it slightly. Some players get motion sickness with lower FOVs, myself included. The best way I can describe it is that it feels as if I’m falling into the monitor, or viewing the world through a tube. It’s absurdly uncomfortable. My monitor is approx 2 feet from me.
In the past, Blizzard has denied increasing the FOV, since they were afraid that players would utilize 21:9 widescreen resolutions to further enhance it and gain a competitive advantage. However, the FOV should be increased regardless, and the previous reasoning also no longer applies to Overwatch 2.
In Overwatch 2, you can already do that. Please see the screenshots below, comparing default 16:9 and 21:9. As you can see, 21:9 has a wider horizontal field of view.
https://i.imgur.com/Zohekwv.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/auUZLVg.jpeg
Since the previous logic no longer applies, please consider, once again, increasing the maximum field of view. I would recommend 120 FOV as the new maximum, using Horizontal FOV, for both 16:9 and 21:9 resolutions. This prevents anyone from getting an FOV advantage(21:9 users using 120 fov would get black bars on the sides of their screen to prevent them from getting extra FOV as in the current implementation. Even if none of that occurs, simply increasing the FOV for everyone is still a huge net +.)
This would allow everyone on monitors to choose a much wider and more comfortable range for their FOV while maintaining competitive integrity. 120 16:9 FOV isn’t enough for a fisheye effect, so the games quality would not drop, even on streams. There are no downsides.
Console players should also be given the option of increasing their FOV. A large number of console players use monitors to game, so allowing them to choose their FOV is also important.
tl;dr: Please increase Overwatch 2’s maximum FOV to 120. 103 is too low for monitor users to maintain comfort and many can feel an effect similar to motion sickness. Current implementation gives 21:9 users an unfair advantage.
