Whereas Marvel Rivals has been extremely profitable for developer NetEase Video games, many have been questioning how Blizzard feels a few new title seemingly stealing the thunder from Overwatch 2. Director Aaron Keller has revealed in an interview with GamesRadar that the staff has to cease “enjoying it secure”.
For context, whereas Overwatch 2 has nonetheless maintained a wholesome participant base, an increasing number of gamers have been opting to spend their time with Marvel Rivals as an alternative. Even Overwatch 2‘s Twitch viewership dropped again in January, with Marvel Rivals getting extra viewers since its launch.
Keller spoke concerning the new sense of competitors that Blizzard is feeling from Marvel Rivals, because the two video games are fairly comparable in style and gameplay kinds. He refers to this competitors as “form of thrilling”.
“We’re clearly in a brand new aggressive panorama that I believe, for Overwatch, we’ve by no means actually been in earlier than, to this extent the place there’s one other recreation that’s so just like the one which we’ve created,” Keller mentioned within the interview. “There’s truly one thing form of thrilling about this, for just a few causes.”
The Overwatch 2 director then pointed to the recently-announced Season 15 of the sport as a great instance of how the corporate is seeking to shake issues up in response to the recognition of Marvel Rivals. He refers back to the staff engaged on Overwatch 2 as feeling inner stress, prompting themselves to make the absolute best recreation that they’ll.
“There’s stress on the Overwatch staff, and numerous it’s inner,” Keller mentioned. “It’s [asking] how can we make the absolute best recreation that we are able to? And we’ve been feeling it for some time.”
“We wish to inject a little bit of freshness into the sport, however not only for selection’s sake. We wish to enhance the depth of play,” Keller continued. “So with perks, there’s some selections in there that we hope add depth to what it means to play any one in every of our heroes within the recreation, and we hope that it provides technique over the course of a match, as a result of now you’re capable of choose issues that both increase what your hero is doing – or perhaps you’re going to make use of it to counter what anyone is doing on the opposite staff.”
Season 15 of Overwatch 2, titled Honor & Glory, is slated for launch on February 18. The replace goes to deliver fairly just a few new options to the sport, together with the addition of Perks as a brand new recreation mechanic. Divided into Minor and Main perks, the system permits gamers to refine their play model with any of the playable characters the deeper they get right into a match. For instance, a Torbjorn participant will have the ability to choose between having a extra highly effective degree 3 turret, or in the event that they would favor degree 2 turrets that may be constructed alongside partitions or ceilings as an alternative.
Together with the gameplay and stability modifications, Overwatch 2 may even be resetting participant ranks. A brand new reward system can be being added to the sport within the type of loot bins that may permit gamers to earn extra cosmetics.