The Future of Overwatch: Where does it go from here after almost 3 years?

[Snack12367]

From an outsider perspective the only thing that really interested me was the setting. I've played plenty of MOBAs before and while Overwatch was appealing, the real draw for me was the Lore. Blizzard are a company that's renowned for well crafted and interesting stories. I couldn't buy it at the time, but I would have just for that reason alone.

It's disappointing that three years down the line the story still hasn't come and the gameplay doesn't make sense because of it. Why can I choose to play a character who is the bad guy, with a team full of good guys? What's the logic here? It doesn't make sense with the lore of the world...

For me the moment has passed. Unless something resolving the above came along, I'm not sure anything will tempt me to buy the game now.

 

[Lazlow]

The game needs content and character balancing on a more regular basis, it needs a role select/enforced meta at diamond and below because people don't want to play as a team (I will never understand why people play team games to then not play as a team).
The events being repeats all last year was beyond a joke, they dropped the ball so hard there and it appears that won't change this year judging by the current lunar event.
I enjoy comp when I play with a group but it's not worth touching outside of that, solo queue is toxic and just not fun.
I've found myself getting into OWL though so that might keep my Overwatch interest ticking over for awhile; hopefully they take control of the game again in that time and do something with it.

 

[LiK]

People threw money at them and they still weren't able to put content as quick as other good games and also nerfed shit to the ground. There is no coming back for this game like back then with games like Fortnite and Apex Legends taking most of the online users.

Click to shrink...

Not gonna lie, I had more fun playing Destiny 2 Comp in the last few months compared to Overwatch's by a large margin. OW Comp just gives me high blood pressure and stress. With all these other online shooters out there, I can only see OW numbers dropping.

 

[Elephant]

I was fully addicted for a good while when it was launched, since then I've popped back on the odd occasion to try out new characters and have had fun but it's still just the same old stuff. I've no desire to go back unless there's a HUGE update. It's not that the game is bad or anything, far from it, but it's become stale. Now Overwatch League is a thing it seems that their focus is all E-Sports instead of the average customer, which sucks.

 

[Deleted member 41520]

They could take a few notes from Siege, especially in terms of adding content. That game went from borderline dead to one of the most popular shooters from this gen.

Click to shrink...

I think this is a pretty different story though.

Siege started dead, Overwatch didn't.

Siege was the latest in a long running and increasingly run-down series; Overwatch was a new IP with a family friendly aesthetic.

Siege had a wonky/shitty beta (which ruined user faith) and only proved itself once out in the wild when streamers clocked on to it; Overwatch came out the gates swinging and had huge streamer promotion from the get go.

Siege took risky, untested innovations with Counter Strike's template; Overwatch took Team Fortress's template and reskinned it beautifully smoothly.

They're not really comparable at all. Looking at Overwatch's future, a different narrative has to emerge.

 

[TheGhost]

I love the game, one of the best shooters I have played and one I keep going back to after taking breaks. I think it's a shame the game isn't getting more content or rapid updates, when you see what happens with games like Fortnite..

Click to shrink...

Yo....how many maps does fortnite have again?
I mean come on people need to stop comparing games to fortnite in regards to updates.

 

[Generic NPC]

F2P with battle pass.

 

[Garcia el Gringo]

My top want is cross-play and cross-progression, but beyond that I don't have many thoughts about shaking up the traditional competitive part of the game. Stuff like discussing balance eludes/bores me (while I appreciate it when it works).

I'm interested in seeing the social aspect of the game become more meaningful. Quite a few non-competitive people in my circle who are still most hooked on the game seem to primarily be in it for the cosmetics, and I always feel the cosmetics get lost after the initial wait in the spawn room for the round to start, after which I start to play in a meditative state and I just see silhouettes - just to be reminded that a lot of us are peacocking when the POTG hits.

Basically, I'd love it if there was an optional social hub that could presumably pull from non-combat social spaces that were planned for the Titan MMO. Maybe let people create characters within the style of OW for the social space, goof around with your squad, browse cosmetics for both your hub-exclusive OC and the main game's cast in in-world stores, host the comics and shorts in the hub and then have your squad funnel into a queue for OW traditional. Without implementing a singleplayer/campaign (that I often feel is a misplaced wish from the team-based hero shooter that OW is), I feel like there's more that can be done to create spaces for exploring/lounging in the universe where people can take in the atmosphere in a way that isn't combat.

I'd be happy if Blizzard met me a fraction of the way and just displayed my squad on the front screen w/ our mains when we're teamed up instead of just displaying our player icons (Zerg icon for life tho).

 

[Maximus]

Yo....how many maps does fortnite have again?
I mean come on people need to stop comparing games to fortnite in regards to updates.

Click to shrink...

Fortnite has had continuous map updates over the past year or longer.

I am not comparing the two games, they are two different things. What I am saying is that one developer is able to make rapid updates (not all good), whereas Blizzard is taking its time. Some people like a steady update stream, some want new things all the time and Epic has shown it is possible with the right resources.

 

[Tuorom]

Overwatch has reached it's peak. This is all the game is going to be outside of more maps and characters.
And that's fine, it is fun for what it is. I don't expect any kind of major single player experience because the game was never designed or envisioned to have one.

 

[Horp]

Too many things in Overwatch are designed to be annoying. Especially with the later characters added. You get: pushed, knocked back, frozen, knocked up, hooked, hacked, blocked and booped. It's just too much.

 

[YellowBara]

It's still fun to me, but I've noticed an intense fatigue in a lot of player's attitude when it comes to the game in general when I play comp. People are getting REALLY tired of the BS with things taking too long and how restrictive the game feels.

I really think that they need to stop making every character feel so similar in function. I enjoyed the game most when characters were wildly different in use, playstyle and goal in what they do during a round but not anymore.

A lot of the heroes step on each other's toes in a bad way which is really obnoxious considering how poorly they balance things. Mei, Torb and Sym still don't really have any reason for you to choose them over other heroes who do their jobs far more efficiently. Snipers feel oddly superfluous to me now that Ashe exists, other than one shots.

Also real sick of characters that can't do anything effectively on their own and require babysitting or another player assisting you to really do anything useful. Mercy being the extreme example, but Reinhardt, Orisa, Symmetra, the supports in general other than Lucio and maybe Moira just don't have that much they can do on their own and it makes them less inviting to play in general.

Idk im on 1 hour of rest and my thoughts aren't coherent but in general the game's been kinda doo doo to play for a variety of reasons.


With that said I still think they need to stop content dripping and go harder on content and especially lore. Lucio needs some lore SERIOUSLY bad. Stop adding basic white characters and have some variety again, be bold.

 

[TheGhost]

Fortnite has had continuous map updates over the past year or longer.

I am not comparing the two games, they are two different things. What I am saying is that one developer is able to make rapid updates (not all good), whereas Blizzard is taking its time. Some people like a steady update stream, some want new things all the time and Epic has shown it is possible with the right resources.

Click to shrink...

Yes but you're still not getting what I'm saying...

One is able to do rapid updates because it's just one damn map....

 

[Maximus]

Yes but you're still not getting what I'm saying...

One is able to do rapid updates because it's just one damn map....

Click to shrink...

Ok fair, developing new maps isn't easy, but when we look at the overall content updates for the year, Overwatch feels like it's moving at a snails pace.

 

[Tachya]

I only browsed some of this thread, but a lot of the sentiments ring true:

Basically they didn't seem to have much of a plan beyond the first year of post-release content and were clearly caught off-guard by the battle royale craze. Blizzard is also very slow to adapt to industry trends, so that didn't help either. I think a lot stems from the fact that Overwatch was salvaged from the failed Titan MMO project, carved out as a functional piece of game.

The greatest strength is the lore and the characters, more than any gameplay elements at this point, so if they lean into that more in whatever capacity (more co-op PvE as a permanent thing, narrative story mode whether single-player or co-op, etc.) I think they'll do better. Dropping lootboxes as the primary source of revenue as the walls come closing in on that with legislation or potentially looming legislation in various countries might help too. Otherwise they should adapt to the market and release content/improve the game more quickly or come up with their own innovations. They seem to have innovated once with the initial release, and then rested on their laurels with post-launch support as the market adapted and flew past them.

The current situation is typical Blizzard right now across all their franchises though, so I'm not sure if anything is really going to change unless there's a massive change in direction from the top.

Additionally, I think the perhaps excessive investment into forcing the professional Overwatch League is a mistake. Blizzard has always been behind on their 1st party support of eSports and just pumping money into a game won't work long-term. And personally I don't think Overwatch is really a game built for good eSports competition anyway -- the initial appeal was that it was more casual and accessible. One point I would bring up is that perhaps Overwatch's closest inspiration, Team Fortress 2, never had a huge competitive scene the likes of Counter-Strike or something, so it's curious why they would think pushing competitive Overwatch would be a good idea. It clearly didn't work out for Heroes of the Storm, another one of their titles...

 

[Noob]

I don't think I'll ever get sick of this game... Just reached diamond portrait last month and still climbing lol.

 

[dabs furiously]

they gotta do big class updates like tf2 and just work on them until stuff feels right

supports and off tanks feel like god right now,maybe a pick and ban system would work if they dont want to do the work

if they still don't want to balance certain roles, they should def have a separate sr system that gets harder to gain sr the more players a certain role has in that rank

the matchmaking system needs to be changed, I've stopped trying to grind comp after hitting gm because it just gives me the worst games, esp on east coast.

I'm asking for hard balancing periods on roles and sub roles, pick and ban system, role queue, differentiate sr based off roles in rank, or even a chance to pick servers without using a vpn

 

[Saucycarpdog]

As someone in the thread already said, everyone in the OW community can't agree on where the game needs to go next. Seagull said in his state of Overwatch video that Blizzard needs to focus on better balancing of heroes and metas. Many people on this forum think the game needs new content or at least more frequent heroes and maps. Then you got the lore community wanting a single player campaign. Then other people saying the game needs to go free to play.

Honestly I don't know what Blizzard can do currently. It seems most of the teams resources is going into the esports scene. And with Activision pressuring them to lower development costs, it's unlikely they'll expand the teams size.

I can maybe see some sort of battlepass system and probably a clan feature in the future.

 

[Neoxon]

I only browsed some of this thread, but a lot of the sentiments ring true:

Basically they didn't seem to have much of a plan beyond the first year of post-release content and were clearly caught off-guard by the battle royale craze. Blizzard is also very slow to adapt to industry trends, so that didn't help either. I think a lot stems from the fact that Overwatch was salvaged from the failed Titan MMO project, carved out as a functional piece of game.

The greatest strength is the lore and the characters, more than any gameplay elements at this point, so if they lean into that more in whatever capacity (more co-op PvE as a permanent thing, narrative story mode whether single-player or co-op, etc.) I think they'll do better. Dropping lootboxes as the primary source of revenue as the walls come closing in on that with legislation or potentially looming legislation in various countries might help too. Otherwise they should adapt to the market and release content/improve the game more quickly or come up with their own innovations. They seem to have innovated once with the initial release, and then rested on their laurels with post-launch support as the market adapted and flew past them.

The current situation is typical Blizzard right now across all their franchises though, so I'm not sure if anything is really going to change unless there's a massive change in direction from the top.

Additionally, I think the perhaps excessive investment into forcing the professional Overwatch League is a mistake. Blizzard has always been behind on their 1st party support of eSports and just pumping money into a game won't work long-term. And personally I don't think Overwatch is really a game built for good eSports competition anyway -- the initial appeal was that it was more casual and accessible. One point I would bring up is that perhaps Overwatch's closest inspiration, Team Fortress 2, never had a huge competitive scene the likes of Counter-Strike or something, so it's curious why they would think pushing competitive Overwatch would be a good idea. It clearly didn't work out for Heroes of the Storm, another one of their titles...

Click to shrink...

The main concern is that stopping the Overwatch League now would be seen as a sign of Overwatch actually dying.

 

[Pewpewlazors]

Overwatch should be turned into an MMO!

 

[Patazord]

Overwatch should be turned into an MMO!

Click to shrink...

 

[Deleted member 45414]

I know where it goes!

Jokes aside, if it wants to stay relevant to the zeitgeist, then now's the time to make a f2p battle royale mode I guess...

 

[8byte]

It's still my go-to shooter and I still have a ton of fun playing it.

My biggest complaint is their content creation is behind. I imagine at this point they are moving on to Overwatch 2 (or Overwatch 2.0). Basically a lot of the old content coupled with new tools to create content more rapidly.

Aren't there rumors of a map editor being released? I think a lot of the stuff they were rumored to have worked on is going to get pushed into whatever 2.0 turns out to be, one big massive expansion pack or purchase.

Also: MAMA HONG! DO IT YOU COWARDS.

 

[Tachya]

The main concern is that stopping the Overwatch League now would be seen as a sign of Overwatch actually dying.

Click to shrink...

I mean yeah, that's the same reason WoW stopped releasing sub numbers and still has a subscription model (among some other similar positions). To do anything less would be seen as a sign of weakness and might trigger a negative feedback loop, even if it would be better for the game in a vacuum.

I definitely think they went too big on Overwatch League though, considering Blizzard has always been behind the eSports trend themselves (they really fucked up here with what they let slip away) and has never been proven to be a capable steward for their titles in terms of heavy developer support of eSports. Frankly, they try to hard to force it most of the time, across all their titles. Overwatch is just the biggest investment yet.

 

[Wraith]

What I'm looking for is a significantly different gameplay mode that shakes things up from the usual rotation of Assault, Escort, Hybrid, Control.

There are a good number of maps, and they are pretty varied, but when you play regularly, you've seen them all countless times.

Some people are saying battle royale? Sure. What the hell. I don't know how the loot & shoot system of battle royale works with the hero system of Overwatch, but there's probably some way to do it.

I should probably revisit the arcade modes and see if they do anything for me. (I'm not big on duels, CTF or standard deathmatch.)

EDIT - Another few additional thoughts. Apart from a couple of the first few events, I've had no incentive to spend money on loot boxes. I'm not opposed to the system, I just always have enough currency to buy the few items I'm interested in that don't drop for free during an event. Would having something to buy mean more new content? I'm not opposed to paying some money now and then, if there was something worthwhile.

Also, progression/xp become pretty meaningless after a while.

 

[8byte]

If nothing else, next month we'll have a much better idea of the future of Overwatch. We should get a new hero, and that *should* be accompanied by a new Developer Update, if they keep consistent with their usual scheduling. If all we get is hero details and some social improvements, then we'll at least have a better grasp of this basically being all we're getting for quite some time.

Realistically, I don't expect much, if anything, to change until next fall (Blizzcon). At that point they'll either announce that there will be an Overwatch 2.0 (not a sequel, but a bunch of big changes / content dump), or they will announce a sequel that will basically still be Overwatch but with a new grab (hopefully not something BR focused).

All guess work, honestly. I'm not confident much of anything will change at this point, but it's still my go to and i love playing it.

 

[JahIthBer]

They can't honestly, a lot of damage has been done by bad patches & with the arrival of PUBG on PC rocking it with a mean left hook & Fortnite on Consoles knocking it out. These things just happen, Overwatch is a fun game, but it's era has past, it's the same as asking why Quake wasn't as popular as Counter Strike back in 99.

 

[Neoxon]

They can't honestly, a lot of damage has been done by bad patches & with the arrival of PUBG on PC rocking it with a mean left hook & Fortnite on Consoles knocking it out. These things just happen, Overwatch is a fun game, but it's era has past, it's the same as asking why Quake wasn't as popular as Counter Strike back in 99.

Click to shrink...

Wait, so are you saying Blizzard should just continue as always or close up shop for Overwatch?

 

[AYZON]

Great, ive only started playing a month ago and people are already talking about it being dead. I hope it stays around longer, im having fun with it.

 

[JahIthBer]

Wait, so are you saying Blizzard should just continue as always or close up shop for Overwatch?

Click to shrink...

I should have said "they can't save it" to clarify since it's obvious this thread is about Overwatch's decline & what to do to fix it, though the title doesn't exactly say that.
Blizzard can update it all they want, but people want BR games.

 

[Twstr709]

If they want to push their league out for more popularity, make it F2P.

 

[Brandon]

I've kinda lost interest in playing and the last few events haven't added skins that I like. Without ever paying for a lootbox I have all but one skin I want. Guess I'll be playing when the Pajamei skin is back.

 

[Arih]

I wish they would go back to Titan project. It sounded amazing.

 

[Deleted member 13645]

For me it needs far better matchmaking. I feel like every time I try to go back the matchmaking is busted and puts me into exceedingly unbalanaced games. I had a game where it was me (only 1 star/prestige?) with a bunch of no prestige people against a team of people who were VASTLY higher level and more skilled than us. We could barely leave spawn it was just a completely obliteration and a horrible failure of the matchmaking. That should not happen.

I definitely think they went too big on Overwatch League though, considering Blizzard has always been behind the eSports trend themselves (they really fucked up here with what they let slip away) and has never been proven to be a capable steward for their titles in terms of heavy developer support of eSports. Frankly, they try to hard to force it most of the time, across all their titles. Overwatch is just the biggest investment yet.

Click to shrink...

I haven't kept up with Overwatch League much, but is the viewership matching the money they're pumping into it? If the money they're putting into it is paying off I don't think they need to scale back Overwatch League, it's probably a pretty good ongoing advertisement for the game at that point especially if it's being featured on Twitch. But if viewership is low or the return isn't worth it is when i'd expect them to scale back.

 

[Mido]

Go F2P, port to Switch. Although without a monetary barrier the quality of the matches would probably go right to shit.

 

[Deleted member 14636]

.

 

[FLUXCapacitor]

Overwatch should be turned into an MMO!

Click to shrink...

WoO

World of Overwatch.....amirite? =D

 

[DiceHands]

Agree with others. It needs a new big game mode. Whether that is something more MOBA-esque or a Battle Royale mode, that is up for the team to decide.

I do think that payload and capture are showing their age and provide nothing that encourages people to come back. They need a defining shift and I dont think more skins or a campaign mode will do that.

A single play campaign would've be amazing.... 2 years ago. Not saying there is no value in it currently, but I do not think it is what the "future" of the game needs. We are past that point, IMO.

 

[Pewpewlazors]

Click to shrink...

WoO

World of Overwatch.....amirite? =D

Click to shrink...

A boy can dream!

 

[Tachya]

For me it needs far better matchmaking. I feel like every time I try to go back the matchmaking is busted and puts me into exceedingly unbalanaced games. I had a game where it was me (only 1 star/prestige?) with a bunch of no prestige people against a team of people who were VASTLY higher level and more skilled than us. We could barely leave spawn it was just a completely obliteration and a horrible failure of the matchmaking. That should not happen.



I haven't kept up with Overwatch League much, but is the viewership matching the money they're pumping into it? If the money they're putting into it is paying off I don't think they need to scale back Overwatch League, it's probably a pretty good ongoing advertisement for the game at that point especially if it's being featured on Twitch. But if viewership is low or the return isn't worth it is when i'd expect them to scale back.

Click to shrink...

There's no way to tell for sure, so I could be wrong, but from what I've seen, the viewership is decent, but nowhere near matching what must be a disproportionate amount being put into the production budget alone, not even getting to other parts of the operation which might be more expensive, and the cost of the dev time to specifically balance for high end, highly visible competitive play.

————

And yeah the base game modes in Overwatch are stale. They got stale after Team Fortress 2 played them out years before with a very similar setup.

 

[Deleted member 32822]

A movie, tv show or some kind of story tie-in.

 

[Tachya]

A movie, tv show or some kind of story tie-in.

Click to shrink...

A breakfast cereal isn't enough?!?

Haha.

 

[Eclipse]

Unfortunately I see no future in OW. I quit/uninstalled the game because I doubt Blizzard can fix their game. There have been discussions about role queue and why it can't be implemented. Every game in Diamond+ consists of smurfs and DPS insta locks (no carers). If the game goes f2p then there will be even more.. Hell, at this point they could just implement a pick order just like Apex Legends does it.
The last couple of heroes were pretty low quality (Moira, Brig) too and took them development time forever. Seriously, what are they doing? No new events and barely new heroes. They keep adding new maps or new lore (Soldier:76 yea..) which is.. weird. No one asks for maps while the game and meta is unplayable. If we see goats in OWL then the viewership will drop drastically.

 

[KarmaCow]

I've played it since launch, and haven't touched it since I tried apex legends. Its just so frustating when a map needs a shield character and no one knows how to play one, or we need a defensive ult and both healers are playing main healers, or we get 4 dps instapicks who refuse to switch even though a tank has gold damage...

I forgot how good it is when everyone is on the same playing field like apex.

It just makes me wonder how good an overwatch 2 would be if they toned down the hero's abilities and made it so everyone could pick any other heroes main gun (for example, pick genji for his reflect and dash, then pick ana's sniper rifle so you can heal your team).

Click to shrink...

I think this is the key here, Overwatch is fundamentally a team game and winning requires everyone to play their part. This leads to both people getting frustrated when (they think) someone else isn't pulling their weight or on the flipside, when you feel like you're that person who is letting everyone else down.

Moreover, there's no real individual success to hang your hat on at the end of a match. Medals are pointless and Play of the Game is only one moment, heavily geared toward one style of play, so there's no shining moment even in a loss. Like as damage even you do get a triple kill, if the rest of the team isn't pushing the objective then it's moot. As a tank, trying to make space to push in means nothing if the rest of the team is spread out and doing their own thing. As a healer, without back up it's just a trying experience getting ganked over and over. Overwatch often feels like a billion points where failing is devastating and not nearly enough moments where you can have a positive impact as one person.

I don't think letting players choose their loadout would fix anything though, it's still the same issue of people not wanting to or being incapable of playing certain roles. Do you see the kind of person who locks in the fourth dps slot also taking some sort of heal weapon for the rest of the team?

 

[Neoxon]

I mean, at least now we know that they're gonna expand Overwatch's staff by 20%. Hopefully this leads to more content.

 

[Jakisthe]

I'd hope they at least increase communication. It's baffling how little they talk to the playerbase for a game of this size/scope. They don't even have full patch notes.

 

[hibikase]

I really hate the major change they did to Mercy and it is making me a lot less interested in coming back. They essentially removed my favourite character.

 

[Tachya]

I mean, at least now we know that they're gonna expand Overwatch's staff by 20%. Hopefully this leads to more content.

Click to shrink...

The wording of that statement was ambiguous. It could pessimistically be interpreted as a total of 20% increase to devs across all the properties mentioned — the split on that might not be even. Rather than a flat 20% more devs for each game mentioned.

 

[subpar spatula]

It's an outdated, easy to access shooter. The eSports scene is small. It is on the decline. I can forsee it being in maintain mode in a few years unless they do some amazing turn around. Your relevancy requires a decent online following via youtube, twitch, etc or else it will slowly disappear.

 

[Red Arremer]

I think that a properly new mode that is integrated into comp (so not like DM and CTF banished to Arcade) might have the capability of changing things up, along with ironing out some issues with ability bloat of newer heroes and the balance issues that comes with.