Overwatch 2 Dev Admits It Was a ‘Mistake’ to Talk About Controversial Self-Healing ‘Out of Context’
The director of Overwatch 2 has mentioned it was a “mistake” to reveal a controversial new self-healing mechanic coming to all characters within the hero shooter “out of context.”
Last week, developer Blizzard unveiled seismic modifications coming to Overwatch 2 as half of Season 9, none extra disruptive than giving each Tank and Damage heroes a “modified, tuned-down model of the Support self-healing passive.”
Overwatch recreation director Aaron Keller defined the choice in a weblog submit on Blizzard’s website:
“This should give non-Support players more options in terms of sustaining themselves. It should also take some of the pressure off Support players to keep everyone alive since individual players now have more control of their own health pool. In Overwatch, there is a constant tug of war between the power of a team and the power of an individual hero or player. A change like this shifts that balance a bit. This is something that we are constantly evaluating. We still want Overwatch to be defined by team strategy and mechanics, but we feel this can be pulled back a bit now and possibly more in the future.”
The announcement sparked a vociferous debate throughout the Overwatch group, with some complaining that it risked devaluing the group play that has outlined Overwatch’s aggressive multiplayer since day one, and will make Support characters ineffective or Tank and Damage heroes overpowered.
Responding to the response, Keller tweeted to difficulty a clarification across the self-heal announcement.
“It’s one part of a much larger set of changes coming to the game in S9,” Keller mentioned. “Internally we’re speaking about, and concentrating on some of these modifications at injury spikiness in recreation, the function of DPS in securing kills, and the energy of therapeutic.
“It was a mistake to speak about this lone change out of context, because it’s a half of a a lot larger set coming to Season 9. Sorry for that, and I look ahead to extra dialogue round S9 stability modifications after we drop extra particulars.”
Keller’s clarification has completed little to calm Overwatch’s involved group, which has to cope with a quantity of controversies throughout Overwatch 2’s brief life. Last month, government producer Jared Neuss mentioned Blizzard was “actively working in the direction of” making a gift of new heroes to all gamers, not simply those that purchase a premium battle move, in what would quantity to a main shakeup of the free-to-download recreation’s monetisation mannequin. Overwatch 2 at present solely permits new heroes to be acquired immediately if gamers purchase the premium battle move at 1,000 Overwatch Coins, which prices $10.
Indeed, monetisation has been a controversial subject inside Overwatch 2 since its launch in October 2022, as highlighted by its Steam launch turning into the platform’s worst reviewed recreation of all time.
Blizzard was additionally closely criticised when Overwatch 2 launched because it pressured its premium predecessor to replace into a free-to-play sequel, rendering the unique Overwatch unplayable. Blizzard additionally cancelled Overwatch 2’s long-awaited PvE Hero mode — the one function, gamers mentioned, that justified the sequel’s existence.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
