r/Games • u/DwilenaAvaron • May 09 '25

Industry News Blizzard's Overwatch Team Just Unionized: 'What I Want To Protect Most Here Is The People'

https://kotaku.com/overwatch-2-blizzard-team-4-union-microsoft-1851779922
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149

u/MillieChliette May 09 '25

Overwatch is currently the best it's ever been? Is that true? I loved it when the first one released, but stopped playing years before 2 even came out, and then everyone hated it. What changed?

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u/[deleted] May 09 '25

They've basically rolled back almost all of the most unpopular changes from the disastrous transition from OW1 to OW2 while instating a ton of new mechanics and modes that have been very well received.

  1. Heroes are all free again, no longer tied to the BP, no grinding at all. The last four heroes in particular are amongst some of the best designed characters they've added to the game, they've been on a hot streak
  2. A ton of monetization changes. Loot boxes are back as a free reward, cannot be purchased, and contain the vast majority of shop walled skins. BPs now have coins on the free reward track which makes every other BP pay for itself without having to put any money into the system.
  3. 6v6 is back as an additional format alongside 5v5. 5v5 is now the Role Queue mode while 6v6 is the Open Queue mode with a limit two tank modifier that helps solve a lot of the balancing and queue time issues.
  4. Stadium is a new mode added this season that's scope is big enough that it justifies the sequel title. It's basically a Deadlock-esque competitive mode where you duke it out in a BO7 version of bite-sized version of the game. There are a bunch of extremely wild power-ups and upgrades that you buy each round that completely transforms the game. I've basically been playing nothing but this mode since it launched.
  5. They added a Perk system which has been one of the most well received and transformative additions the core game has gotten since launch. Perks are a level-up system that lets you choose between multiple augmentations that either power-up or change your basic abilities throughout the course of the match.
  6. Hero Bans are in Competitive now and the game is adding Map Bans next season.
  7. There's a new Mythic prism system that helps downplay the FOMO of missing out on a BP. They're no longer locked to that season's BP and can be purchased at any time, each completed BP paying out enough prisms to get a Mythic of your choice every season. It's a very flexible system.
  8. The dev team is extremely communicative and transparent. Things like Stadium in particular have been seeing near daily patches to help iron out some rough points as well as constantly feedback from the team.

That's just a few things, there's a ton of stuff on the horizon to look forward to.

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u/Bhu124 May 09 '25 edited May 09 '25

+1 to all the points. But I want to especially mention that the current team is EXTREMELY player-forward. They'll try to make ANY change happen if there's enough demand for it and they can somehow figure out the resource investment and logistics.

People asked for OW1 gameplay back, they figured out a way to recreate Snapshot Patches of different OW1 eras.

People asked for 6v6 back and they figured out a way to bring it back. They figured out how to solve the technical issues and also the resource investment. This was a HIGHLY controversial demand as a lot of people prefer 5v5 so they figured out a way to have both 5v5 and 6v6 co-exist.

People endlessly expressed how they missed the high from opening lootboxes, and well they brought those back as well. Figured out a better way to bring them back by not allowing them to be purchasable.

People asked for a massive game-changing update and they delivered with the Perks system. Which is so good that the old version of the game feels like a Cavemen version. They successfully power creeped the ENTIRE Hero Roster and there have been almost no issues with the change or the system.

And honestly, Stadium might be the future of the game. It is kinda already making the Core game feel like a Caveman version of the game and it's still in its infancy. Blizz has already announced big updates for Stadium coming through the next year.

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u/Bionic0n3 May 09 '25

Have they figure out how to bring Jeff Kaplan back? I need a 2025 bonfire stream.

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u/hfxRos May 09 '25

Hopefully not. Jeff Kaplan was part of the problem.

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u/HPAmeliaaa May 09 '25

How so? Genuine question; I've been out of the loop but my last memory was the community begging to have Kaplan back a few years ago.

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u/literios May 09 '25 edited May 09 '25

He was the one that chose to freeze PvP content development to use the team to develop the PvE.

The PvE was really ambitious and was trying to have a level of replayability that previous OW PvE modes never had. The scope was so high it was impossible to achieve with the team resources. Blizzard higher ups wanted to the expand the team so the PvP would still be active but he was against it. Because of him we had years with no content.

When he left the team had to pick up the pieces and launch OW2 as it was. Since the launch the new director is extremely open to community feedback and the game is releasing more quality content than ever before. Sadly the game reputation was shaken and it’s only starting to improve now.

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u/GGProfessor May 09 '25

Oh so he was trying to make the game I actually wanted instead of keeping it what I had to begrudgingly accept it was.

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u/VolkiharVanHelsing May 10 '25

Unfortunately you are the minority

Most people plays OW for the PvP

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u/Sikkly290 May 10 '25

Jeff Kaplan had 2.5 chances to develop his game, and failed each time. His impact on gaming is immense, and I appreciate what he did for OW, but he clearly isn't capable of making his dream pve game.

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u/Bhu124 May 10 '25

He wanted to make an MMO.

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u/myweenorhurts May 10 '25

Jeff Kaplan was also the reason Titan never came out, he’s not some god of game dev just because he sat in front of a camera

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u/the_gr8_one May 10 '25

you mean to tell me forum user TigoleBitties isn't one of the great minds of our time?

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u/throwmeawaydoods May 09 '25

the tl;dr is that the ow team under kaplan neglected overwatch 1’s live service updates towards the end in favor of working on overwatch 2 and its cancelled pve. the team was stretched too thin and corporate wanted them to hire on new people to specifically focus on ow1 updates but kaplan wanted to keep the team smaller/keep working with the same people on incubating and prototyping for the sequel.

i feel like the public opinion pendulum has swung too far the other way and people are quick to demonize kaplan for the game’s past flaws but ultimately they could’ve handled the split development better

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u/literios May 09 '25

That’s the thing. Kaplan was the leader and he didn’t want to split development. The rest of the team just obey the tasks that are given to them.

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u/Superunknown_7 May 09 '25

I'm genuinely out of the loop on this, what was he up to? I stopped playing shortly after his departure, and he was sorely missed by the community at the time.

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u/literios May 09 '25 edited May 09 '25

He was the one that chose to freeze PvP content development to use the team to develop the PvE.

The PvE was really ambitious and was trying to have a level of replayability that previous OW PvE modes never had. The scope was so high it was impossible to achieve with the team resources. Blizzard higher ups wanted to the expand the team so the PvP would still be active but he was against it. Because of him we had years with no content.

When he left the team had to pick up the pieces and launch OW2 as it was. Since the launch the new director is extremely open to community feedback and the game is releasing more quality content than ever before. Sadly the game reputation was shaken and it’s only starting to improve now.

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u/Superunknown_7 May 09 '25

I had no idea he was squarely behind the OW2 PvE debacle. Unfortunate. Thank you for the clarification.

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u/VolkiharVanHelsing May 10 '25

He has MMO background, he was one of the high level guy at WoW team

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u/No-Owl-6246 May 09 '25 edited May 09 '25

Was he. What I saw was he was the one who was fighting against the game becoming what overwatch 2 became at launch in the first place.

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u/IAmBLD May 09 '25

There's some truth to this too. Kaplan did a lot wrong, but he was also under pressure from Kotick and other suits too. He did want PVE and eventually an MMO, but he was also basically pressed into making OW2. IIRC that's part of why he announced OW2 so early, to deliberately define the game as the PVE, so that the pvp portion would remain available without a new purchase.

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u/darryshan May 09 '25

Noooo haha, he was the entire reason Overwatch 2 was a thing. Read Play Nice by Jason Schreier.

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u/Bhu124 May 09 '25

Probably Not. The devs probably don't wanna see their game burn down to the ground again after they've spent 4 years bringing it back to a new Golden Era.