Overwatch is one big unknown at the moment, even Blizzard does not know what will come of it.
Overwatch has now split into two worlds. One is the one where developers, artists, and programmers go out of their way to bring Jeff Kaplan’s vision to life. The second is all the scandals and drama that take place around Blizzard and people working on OW.
These two worlds, although separated from each other, are more and more interpenetrated. Today, it is not really about waiting for the trailer for a new character but for another scandal involving people working at Blizzard.
Overwatch producer on Jeff Kaplan
A few years ago (yes, Overwatch 2 was announced in 2019), no one would have thought that this is how it would all turn out. We have a messed-up design for the second part, with virtually no information reaching us.
In theory, it is good, changing the basis of the game (5vs5), rework, new maps, characters, UI, in practice we get a few gameplays, from which it is difficult to deduce anything except that it is a bit different. Blizzard was promising more communication, and at this point, players are literally praying for any to show up.
Blizzard was forgiven a lot, saying that it was like this, it was to be expected, that in a few months players will surely receive some specific information. Meanwhile, everyone deeply feels that this is not how it should be. People are happy with comics, skins, but at the same time have the feeling that the announcements of communication ended with the fact that we don’t know anything about the upcoming production.
Overwatch 2’s vision is incredibly interesting and exciting. However, it’s hard to get into it when so many bad things are happening around Blizzard. The producer of Overwatch on her Twitter published some very important information that confirms the previous theories of players.
Jeff Kaplan went away because of a corporate approach to gaming, and he is not the only one.
From the dozen different messages Tracy has published, it follows that:
- Everyone who works on Overwatch 2 is tired of the constant problems at Blizzard.
- Employees are overwhelmed by the situation.
- Jeff Kaplan was one of the main people who protected “Team 4” from the corporate “BS”.
What’s funny, Mike Ybarra, who took the helm of Blizzard, did not contact the development team for 3 months.
At the first meeting, previously recorded corporate material was played.
And here we come back to Overwatch 2 and the fact that it is a huge puzzle. Jeff Kaplan’s vision for PvE is still interesting and it can still be a huge success. However, it is difficult to fully believe in it when the people working on it are tired, frustrated, and do not know what it will look like.
We used to laugh at people saying that Overwatch 2 is Overwatch 1. You could answer about big changes, plans, and visions. Today it is difficult to answer anything because Blizzard does not really give anything other than promises.
Blizzard’s biggest problem will be getting players interested again and answering why OW1 is not OW2. In theory, it is very simple, in practice, 3 years after the announcement of Overwatch 2, the explanation is an hours-long discussion.
Every argument on both sides can be retorted.
- Same characters – yes, but changed.
- Same maps – yes, but new ones added.
- So why haven’t new maps been added in Overwatch 1? – because the engine has changed.
- After all, the engine has been improved many times – yes, but not to that extent.
- What about the characters, the engine also prevented you from releasing new ones? – Yes and no.
- Why 5vs5? Because it will be better this way.
- Then why hasn’t it changed now? Because characters need change.
- What the reworks are for, after all, they were in Overwatch 1.
- Etc
It seems that in the second part of any game such discussions simply should not arise.