Here is the initial question for you to answer: Is Overwatch 2 good enough to not only keep the current players interested in the current state of the game for 2+ years, but also bring back AND KEEP the returning players who left already?
I am seeing a lot of players argue that “it won’t matter cause once Overwatch 2 is released, the player base will increase!”. I just want to say, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of this game called “Call Of Duty” but look how that works out for them. They release a new game, game is hyped up for a few months, player base increases, and then dead.
The reason why a content drought is so bad is because players will leave, go find a new game to play (cough cough Apex) then probably come back for Overwatch 2 but will be so invested in another game by then that they will play Overwatch 2 for a month or two (like cod) then leave again. We need content to keep the current player base happy so they stick around and don’t get sucked into another game.
I mean if you don’t believe me, Top 500s are being constantly paired with diamonds… because there are no players to match with anymore.
Don’t get me wrong, I love how Overwatch 2 is coming along and I can’t wait, but the current state of the game is that of a raisin… dried up.
I say, they release Sojourn and one of the new maps, and then boom, content till Overwatch 2. I mean, they did say they have tons of maps and 6 new heroes for Overwatch… so one of each shouldn’t be that big of a deal.
It just makes me wonder how they are sustaining themselves, especially when I see more and more “lootbox special offers” both in-game and in Blizzard’s launcher. I wonder if the drought, and the reaction of the playerbase, is having any detrimental effect on their development of OW2.
To be honest, the other game i would play will never be apex. Unless like group of my friends would magicialy starting to play it and ask me to join. Or at least one. But that will not happen.
After playing whole free battlepass back when they added those short missions in shadow world (i dont remember much, some lore stuff about collecting parts of robot head) i say, i dont really got to understand why that was a game people should go after overwatch dissapointment stage.
Yes, and Overwatch releases the exact same events every month. The exact same gamemodes for nearly 5 years. The exact same heroes for nearly a year. The exact same maps for over a year.
(I don’t count arcade and quick play stuff because Overwatch is a competitive team based shooter so I mainly refer content to the competitive side of the game.)
None of the issues you’re saying comes from content drought but rather stagnation. And the problem is the playerbase needs a “oooh shiny” change every so often to believe the game is fresh.
The reality is the formula is stale, hard to improve on without a DNA change, and that’s what they’re bringing to the table with OW2.
Now my question would be if they will outright delete OW1. My guess is they’ll keep OW1 as legacy
Considering all the competitive content we’ve gotten for the past 3 years has practically been the same (or at least up till they stopped releasing competitive maps and heroes)… yes I can.
Truth is they can go to any game, I just chose that one because it’s been pretty popular recently. But there is plenty of games people can get hooked on.
What’s so hard about releasing a new hero that looks almost 100% done to give the players something new to do while we wait? Nobody wants to play the same game, same events, same maps, same heroes, same gamemodes for 2+ years. New heroes has kept the game alive till now, and there is no reason it wouldn’t keep the game alive till Overwatch 2.
This hero exists in a game where there’s 5v5 instead of 6v6.
The game also probably tweaked heroes in a way they branched away from their OW1 formula.
Inputting this new hero retroactively can be an amount of hours that they’re not willing to spend on the legacy game, but rather towards the next iteration.
It’s really not that hard to understand if you know how game development goes. Or really, any kind of development. These hours, which could add up to hundreds of man hours, are simply not worth it in their eyes.
Is it feasible? Probably. Is it worth the inevitable backlash for a hero that will just be OP and will add further balancing problems in the “end of life” of the game? I don’t think so.
PS: You say it’s done, but there’s probably no skin aside from base skin, and no “legendary” skins either atm for it. So yeah. They’d also need to retrofit interactions adding voicelines which might not make sense because they come from the lore of OW2. You underestimate the development in favor of a consumer vision of how things work.
It is also not hard to understand that the game is dying in its current state and putting all your cards that sequel hype will revive a game is a bad bet. Like I said, do you think Overwatch 2 is enough to bring back players and keep them?
And you don’t think dropping 100+ changes and 6 heroes at once during Overwatch 2 won’t cause balancing problems? Imagine returning to play Overwatch 2 thinking they fixed the game after you last played and there is a bunch of new bugs. That persons gonna go back to whatever game they were playing before.
The character itself looks done. Does it mean it’s done? No. But it’s playable enough that they showed her 50% of the time during the gameplay. Also, I don’t know how long you’ve been around, but most new heroes don’t have any cosmetics when they are put onto the ptr. Also, you do realize they have enough time to make new skins for the events, and have the voice actor do voicing for Overwatch 2? So why would making cosmetics be that difficult if they already are doing it? I guarantee you, if you set up a poll where people can vote if they want a new hero or the archives 2021 event… they will vote new hero. And since they can create skins for the new event, why don’t they just put that time towards the new heroes skins?
PS: Heroes don’t usually get voice interactions for around 8 months after release. Sigma just recently got his.
Maybe he is looking at it from a purely PvP perspective, and not looking at the updates/new content as a whole.
I can see how some people feel that way but I actually agree with you that it is way more than just rehashing old content. For the most part anyway. They didn’t really give a LOT for PvP news, just a few mentions and nothing too in-depth.
Fair point. But either way, paying or not, the game gets boring when it’s the same stuff over and over again.
Basically it’s just a redone version of the original with PvE and skill trees. I lowkey feel like blizzard was just sitting around and was like “hey you know all those stupid ideas we wanted to put but we couldn’t? I have an idea, let’s put em in for missions and call it a sequel!”
I do actually (if you’re referring to me). Don’t get me wrong, PvE or any content update is awesome, but Overwatch is advertised as a “Competitive Team Based Shooter”. I only really play for competitive. I’m sure anyone who plays arcade and workshop mainly has no problem waiting for Overwatch 2 because they have so many options for gameplay and are actually getting updates (they just got a new arcade map and new arcade mode).
