Overwatch Sequel Isn’t on Blizzard’s Horizon But New Heroes Are
Overwatch is currently celebrating its second birthday, and despite the game’s massive success, there is no sequel on Blizzard’s horizon. Instead, the developer is focusing on Overwatch itself.
Even though Overwatch’s popularity has fluctuated over the last few months, the game’s recent Archives event brought more players to Overwatch than ever before. During the event, the game hit the 40-million-player milestone.
Fans are consistently returning to the six vs. six team shooter, but Blizzard is more focused on improving and fine-tuning Overwatch itself rather than creating a sequel for the game. Assistant game director Aaron Keller and game producer Matthew Hawley talked to GameSpot about the ever-evolving nature of Overwatch as a live game.
“I think at the core sitting here at the two-year anniversary, we’ve had a wildly successful six vs. six shooter game, which has blown us away with how the community has responded to it,” Keller said. “We dip our toes into different areas here and there with the Archives event and Junkenstein. But I think our focus is really on keeping the community engaged with the six vs. six shooter that we have on the live service.”
That being said, the team behind the game has a lot in store for players in terms of new heroes, maps and events.
Overwatch is on a cycle for hero development, with a new hero released every three months or so. The developers seem to have a limitless supply of hero ideas, many of which were pitched at the game’s launch.
Hawley also told GameSpot that there is a list of 50 heroes that were pitched at the start of the game’s development. Lots of these heroes haven’t even been touched yet, but Keller said the team is excited to keep working through that.
But the developers aren’t just limited to this list, either. Blizzard is also known to take inspiration from player feedback.
“[Overwatch] is a live game,” developer Geoff Goodman said. “We get to react and try to add things that people are asking for that we didn’t think of originally. In some ways, it’s hard to know exactly where we’ll be because we’re being guided by the community for some degree.”
According to Keller, Overwatch’s Deathmatch mode is a perfect example of the community’s influence on the live game. Fans loved the mode and demanded more, and Blizzard followed through. The Anniversary event that went live on Tuesday brought a brand new Deathmatch map to the game, called Petra, and introduced a Competitive Play mode for the gametype.
“It was directly a desire from the community,” Keller said.
The game’s newest hero, Brigitte, was introduced to the roster in late March, which means we still have a few months of speculation and anticipation before details about a new hero start showing up.
Even though players may not have an Overwatch sequel to look forward to anytime soon, they can rely on Blizzard to maintain a constant flow of new heroes, events and content to the evolving game. Right now is a great time to give Overwatch a shot, with a free weekend kicking off Friday and running through May 28. Players will have access to all of the new and returning content that is featured in Overwatch’s Second Anniversary event, which runs until June 11.