TheRetroArcade
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Aaron Keller reflected on Overwatch 2's live service development during a recent talk at GDC.
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The single most controversial change in Overwatch 2 (now Overwatch) was its shift to having five players on each team instead of six. Dropping one player dramatically changed the way the hero shooter worked, driving off many players who fell in love with the 6v6 format in the original game.
"This was one of the most, if not the most, controversial gameplay decisions in Overwatch's history," game director Aaron Keller said during a panel at this year's Game Developers Conference.
From the moment Overwatch 2 was released in 2022, players debated whether 5v5 was right for the game. Each team lost a tank hero which required substantial reworks to how the role functioned. Heroes like Orisa went from the kind of tank that protects the frontline to a tank that was just as capable of securing kills as a damage hero. Many players wanted 6v6 to come back and filled Reddit and Twitter threads up with their arguments for why it would fix the game.
The development team didn't acknowledge this topic until July 2024 with a blog post discussing the pros and cons of both formats. In it, Blizzard promised to run a few limited-time 6v6 modes to gauge interest, and those lead to the permanent mode being added to the game.
Keller reflected on all the pivotal decisions the team made with Overwatch 2 in his GDC talk, but specifically called out the 6v6 debate as one he thinks they dropped the ball on. "We waited at least a year before we meaningfully addressed the 5v5 versus 6v6 debate, kind of hoping that the conversation would settle on its own," he said. "We should have listened sooner."
Overwatch players, Keller explained during the presentation, wanted more rapid evolution of the game than he originally thought. After observing how other live service games, like Marvel Rivals, were run, the team theorized that Overwatch needed "intentional novelty within a competitive framework," and more regular communication from the team.
The 6v6 tests showed that a lot of players wanted the format back, so Blizzard released a mode that remains the second most popular mode in Overwatch today. However, Keller said the amount of people playing it still had a sharp drop-off like most other modes in the game. "If I'm being honest with the room and everyone else who's watching," Kelle...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
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Every Thursday
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Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
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The single most controversial change in Overwatch 2 (now Overwatch) was its shift to having five players on each team instead of six. Dropping one player dramatically changed the way the hero shooter worked, driving off many players who fell in love with the 6v6 format in the original game.
"This was one of the most, if not the most, controversial gameplay decisions in Overwatch's history," game director Aaron Keller said during a panel at this year's Game Developers Conference.
From the moment Overwatch 2 was released in 2022, players debated whether 5v5 was right for the game. Each team lost a tank hero which required substantial reworks to how the role functioned. Heroes like Orisa went from the kind of tank that protects the frontline to a tank that was just as capable of securing kills as a damage hero. Many players wanted 6v6 to come back and filled Reddit and Twitter threads up with their arguments for why it would fix the game.
The development team didn't acknowledge this topic until July 2024 with a blog post discussing the pros and cons of both formats. In it, Blizzard promised to run a few limited-time 6v6 modes to gauge interest, and those lead to the permanent mode being added to the game.
Keller reflected on all the pivotal decisions the team made with Overwatch 2 in his GDC talk, but specifically called out the 6v6 debate as one he thinks they dropped the ball on. "We waited at least a year before we meaningfully addressed the 5v5 versus 6v6 debate, kind of hoping that the conversation would settle on its own," he said. "We should have listened sooner."
Overwatch players, Keller explained during the presentation, wanted more rapid evolution of the game than he originally thought. After observing how other live service games, like Marvel Rivals, were run, the team theorized that Overwatch needed "intentional novelty within a competitive framework," and more regular communication from the team.
The 6v6 tests showed that a lot of players wanted the format back, so Blizzard released a mode that remains the second most popular mode in Overwatch today. However, Keller said the amount of people playing it still had a sharp drop-off like most other modes in the game. "If I'm being honest with the room and everyone else who's watching," Kelle...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?