Overwatch 2 Developer Update with Aaron Keller - Gamewide Progression, Ranked Changes, Ultimate Cost Changes

Overwatch Posted 2023/01/27 at 5:02 PM by gibsy

Blizzard

Hi everyone!

This piece is aimed at looking at some of the topics that have come up in the community over the course of Season 2. This won‘t be comprehensive enough to look at everything that players are talking about, but our intent is to do this every few weeks, so we will be able to start diving into smaller topics as we go. Also, the goal here is to keep you up to date on what we’re thinking and planning, but not necessarily to be the source for all the reasoning and detail behind those decisions.

So let’s get to it!

The new Ranked mode suffered from poor comprehension. There was confusion around players’ real rank and how that translated to their skill level, difficulty forming groups with friends, and a negative impression of the matchmaker when players of different ranks were put in the same match (even if their skill levels were similar). We will be implementing some changes in S3 and quite a few more in S4 all aimed at creating more clarity in the system. More details on short-term changes and long-term vision will be coming soonTM.

We’ve gotten feedback from players that the game doesn’t feel rewarding enough to play and that players can’t earn the items they want in a short enough period of time. We’ll be making a change in S3 that should address some of these complaints. This is a first step. We will have more details to share about this next week.

There are a fair number of changes to ult cost in S3. We’ll be lowering the ult refund when swapping heroes to 25% as part of this tuning pass.

Balance frequency is a big topic. Bug fixes to hot fixing should enable us to address balance faster and would have enabled us to tune Hog earlier in S2. We’re still planning an initial and midseason patch each season, but now have the full ability to fill in between those as necessary.

One-shots and frustrating hero mechanics are being discussed a lot in the community and on the team. This is an ongoing discussion, but the topic has a lot of nuances that involves the frequency of those mechanics, trade-offs for using it, the overall power level of a hero, how often the hero is played, as well as things like a hero’s fantasy. Know that we’re listening here, the feedback has been great and very welcome, and we’ll come back to this when we have more to share.

Thanks so much for reading, and please keep the feedback coming. We’re listening.

Aaron

Comment by BukachuIf they were listening, we wouldnt get this greedy battle pass reward system.

lying greedy corporation.Comment by hobbidaggyI look forward to what they say and do. Always loved Overwatch and hopefully these changes will be what’s needed to make it fun to play again.

Battle pass was the worst idea they could have done. I don’t ever see it going away but I would like to see it change from being a thing you buy and then earn, to something you earn and if you want to buy it you can and then skip the earning side of it. This allows players to either earn the rewards simply from playing only and it also allows the people who have the money but not the time to just buy the cosmetic rewards and be done with it.

Again I don’t see that changing but it would be nice to see.

Moving back to a 6 person a side match would be nice as well.

I will give these changes a shot. I still hold hope that they will make the game as fun as Overwatch was and that they keep listening to the player feedback.Comment by ChochuThat guy Aaron Keller is a yes man bending over for the higher ups, he barely show his face or interact with the playerbase at all, i guess not everyone is born to be a Game Director he is just been a placeholder from day one he was giving the position, doesnt have any enthusiams for the game let alone care about the development team, the fact the game still on this state is proof of that. ggComment by NightRisenOW2 has been going down hill really fast. I just got banned for telling off a group of homophobic bullies who were telling me and the other random to off ourselves. Then the GM who looked at my appeal told me it’s not my “right” to say rude things back…Comment by Ant343OW2 has been going down hill really fast. I just got banned for telling off a group of homophobic bullies who were telling me and the other random to off ourselves. Then the GM who looked at my appeal told me it’s not my “right” to say rude things back…Comment by KanariyaIf they were listening, we wouldnt get this greedy battle pass reward system.

lying greedy corporation.Comment by CriturisAlmost like they changed a lot of things from the original game and design and now are having to redo a lot of work that could have been avoided if the changes hadn't been implemented. Changing to 5v5 is fine but the amount of changes to heroes was not enough to adjust alongside with the 5v5 change. That's only one of the issues with the changes and it will take a lot more time to adjust them accordingly so that's not good. I am not super excited about the future of the game because if such obvious issues weren't addressed prior to release, fixing them now shows they are not capable of creating the magic that the original team was able to capture.Comment by Toffi23OW2 has been going down hill really fast. I just got banned for telling off a group of homophobic bullies who were telling me and the other random to off ourselves. Then the GM who looked at my appeal told me it’s not my “right” to say rude things back…Comment by NightRisenOW2 has been going down hill really fast. I just got banned for telling off a group of homophobic bullies who were telling me and the other random to off ourselves. Then the GM who looked at my appeal told me it’s not my “right” to say rude things back…Comment by NightRisenOW2 has been going down hill really fast. I just got banned for telling off a group of homophobic bullies who were telling me and the other random to off ourselves. Then the GM who looked at my appeal told me it’s not my “right” to say rude things back…Comment by SixpacWhere is the PvE?Comment by miloticalready a dead gameComment by SweetsourAfter seeing how money-hungry the game has become, I stepped away and have no intention of going back until they make cosmetic items priced more reasonably...which is highly unlikely.Comment by FrawtariusOW2 has been going down hill really fast. I just got banned for telling off a group of homophobic bullies who were telling me and the other random to off ourselves. Then the GM who looked at my appeal told me it’s not my “right” to say rude things back…Comment by WanwankoIf OW2 is fun than OW1, I would have paid for this money $%^& battle pass without complaining.
But it's not, why don't Devs understand this point?Comment by AzrajinBobby Kotick's upper management BS and his devloping quota, staff rank-stacking and his desperation for money has ruined overwatch.

This isn't a dev problem. The core gameplay of 5v5 is good, the balance is always going to be a WIP and never perfect that's just how game dev is.

The battle pass system - would be great if it actually worked like other battlepasses - buy one get enough for the next one AND some coin beside.

The shops a money grab, it's impossible to afford anything, coin gaining is terrible because the upper management are desperate for metric based data and retention for the shareholders. All the devs want to do is make a good game. This is why Jeff Kaplan walked away from OW2

Everything that made OW1 fun is gone. - end game cards, loot boxes (were deffo NOT the worst in the industry as you had multiple pathways to purchase without ever needing to spend coin). Events with skins to collect now relegated to one skin and its been 2/3 for an OW1 skin OW1 players already have.

If Bobby Kottick's lot could kindly jump off the ledge and throw the game and let the devs do what they love you'd find OW2 and prolly all blizzard games would improve.Comment by EnbieVikingOW2 has been going down hill really fast. I just got banned for telling off a group of homophobic bullies who were telling me and the other random to off ourselves. Then the GM who looked at my appeal told me it’s not my “right” to say rude things back…Comment by NightRisenOW2 has been going down hill really fast. I just got banned for telling off a group of homophobic bullies who were telling me and the other random to off ourselves. Then the GM who looked at my appeal told me it’s not my “right” to say rude things back…Comment by NightRisenOW2 has been going down hill really fast. I just got banned for telling off a group of homophobic bullies who were telling me and the other random to off ourselves. Then the GM who looked at my appeal told me it’s not my “right” to say rude things back…Comment by TyowinnJunker Queen needs a buff, she is so squishy... and the battle pass needs to be easier to earn with more free tiers.