If you haven’t read the Director Take, I suggest you take a look. To sum it up, they will no longer be adding content to Stadium, effectively killing the mode. This is a huge blow to many groups who only dedicate their time to this mode (like me and my friend group.) Though their data suggests that only a small % play this mode, they are ignoreing other factors of why that may be:
-Missing heroes? Not everyone’s favorites are included yet (and now they never will be)
-Wait times due to having 2 queuing pools (Normal and Competitive, to keep the mode healthy, i would gladly see them consolidated into 1)
-Not properly being highlighted in updates (some seasons only a hero, some only a map Without proper incentives for people to play, why would people regularly come back?)
-New hero opportunity. Though some may complain that a new hero is added in Stadium before one of the classics, its a great way to showcase new heroes, giving people a chance to play them in other modes. Jetpack cat was a perfect example of this.
-Snubbed by Overwatch highlight in Feb. We got a small blurb about stadium, but nothing else. Again if you don’t showcase a product, how is it going to get popular?!?!?
Stadium was the next evolution of the hero fantasy Overwatch initially presented. Here we got to play our heroes, customized to how we liked them, even if it was overpowered. Also, the fact that it was the only mode that had third person option makes it special and could have been a great gateway for those coming from your competitor (Marvel Rivals). Balancing may be harder for this mode, but the incredible feats that our characters could achieve cannot be emulated in the main core modes. That coupled with the camaraderie of playing a long grueling match, or turning a massive losing streak around was just something so unique.
I implore blizzard to reconsider this bad take, and figure out a way to rejuvenate this mode instead of just casting it to the wayside. Only doing balancing support updates, just basically puts it on life support as it marches towards its inevitable death.
I’m good. I like it, but I’d rather they spend the dev time on something new than something dead. Stadium inherently requires a ton of dev time to add new heroes. It’s just not worth it.
It’ll still exists in it’s current state and I’m fine with that.
I mean honestly just sounds like you were always the one dying in Stadium. If you hate the mode that fine, but it seems more like this was a you issue.
Figuring out strategies to overcome OP heroes was part of the fun of it. If that doesn’t sound fun to you then go play core mode.
Season after season I proved that with my ranks in Competitive. Never did whine as much about the big OP heroes making me feel butt hurt.
Figure out the best items for the character you’re on, voila, never think about it again and curbstomp anyone who tried to do anything but the meta items for their characters.
The mode was always doomed. Its future content included deeply hated characters in the main mode, but on steroids. There is a reason they talked about how characters like Ball, Widow and Sombra needed to be treated with extreme care.
It’s death march began the moment they added more heroes.
oh dam, shows how much i care about stadium. didnt read the whole blog i guess. so they are ending stadium… oh well
still i mean i think it does suck since i am sure there are people who enjoy it. i didnt but yea i think some people did. its like i would never play mystery heroes either . i use to try every now and then but i would be like NEVER AGAIN… till finally never again was my thing
They are not ending stadium. They are no longer adding new heroes or maps. You might call that ending stadium which is fair, but it will be playable and patched for the foreseeable future.
Stadium was a blast. It takes too long though. They should have kept it at 5 rounds. No other game mode requires dedicating 40+ minutes to a match. That’s a big commitment. And after few hours of playing you may only get a couple matches in. It can be painful for most to sit through that.
But coming from someone who made it to top 500 and legend on all roles it genuinely made me a better player. It gave me confidence in playing new heroes I struggled with in role queue and 6v6. I prefer the fast pace gameplay while also being competitive. I’ve often felt Overwatch gameplay is too slow and characters are too weak, but stadium fixed that. The 7 round slump killed it. They should have committed. Matchmaking is a little rough too. Needs to be tighter, but requires more players to play. They should save stadium honestly. New heroes would be great. Give us maps that ppl don’t play much. They don’t need to be completely new. They aren’t doing anything with role queue and 6v6 anyway. Minor tweaks here and there and kings row for 10 more years. Yay! It’s stale. But I guess they are just a small indie studio. Can’t blame them too much.
they clearly know all the factors, just because they don’t say it, it doesn’t mean they ignored the rest.
They spent a whole year dedicated to stadium while giving crumbs for the rest of the game, they cared and they waned to succeed because a lot of money and resources were spent to it.
Making these decisions are not easy, its a loss for them, but they have to keep going for the better.
Stadium is clearly an ambitious project, they have their own team for it.
But Overwatch sucks at supporting anything that want naivety the money they want, always. For 20 years.
Add a story based mode? Made money but not as mush as anti$ipated, cancel. Stadium? Cancel. Free to play for $60 a skin package making more than selling a base video game? Cancel and start freemium.
but like that people expect Blizzard/activision/microsoft to be some sort of good person company is part of the problem. These guys are not your friend and they aren’t making video games because they are fun for you. They are making them to make money only. You aren’t going to get Indy company love from a sloppy glutton company division like Blizzard.
Just play it if you like it and if they dump your favorite game mode you dump their game. It might matter to them or it might not, and it’s sad for us, but we knew who these people were when we got into this. They didn’t become better and they never were going to.
Yes please save stadium. Even if it’s a smaller player base we still matter. Especially when stadium players are dedicated. The hours that people put into this mode is insane. BECAUSE ITS JUST THAT FUN. The mode is different and it has an addictive aspect to it because of how customizable your hero is, adding new heroes brings excitement and changes to the meta. Many people haven’t played stadium simply because their heroes aren’t in there. Stadium is what has personally kept me and my friends on overwatch in general. Please devs
Hey can you do us all a favour and just leave the thread? Thanks. No, I’m serious. You have nothing to add except “deleting stadium is fine with me”. We got the message, no need to repeat it.
Nearly every complaint I’ve heard about the mode so far has been a skill issue. The heroes are absolutely broken, but you can be too, which is why it’s fun.
The whole point is to build according to the enemy. People got too comfortable insta-locking comfort items without even looking at the enemy comp. Then they complain that it is unplayable.
Stadium needs to be fleshed out. Add the roster. Let it be chaotic.
. i use to try every now and then but i would be like NEVER AGAIN… till finally never again was my thing
)
R.I.P
