Overwatch 2's Game Director Aaron Keller has numerous insights into Overwatch Stadium in your luggage, from the initial development of the mode to the balance philosophy and large plans for the future:
“We were very happy about your enthusiasm for Overwatch Stadium and, above all, we enjoyed watching you play. There was already so much creativity with the builds. But that didn't surprise us – we knew that you would not disappoint us!
Before I go into current changes and future developments, I would like to tell a little about the history of the stage, in the hope that this will give you a context for future orientation. I also like the title “Past, Present and Future”!
Past
Stadium was created as an idea before the start of Overwatch 2. In fact, before it was introduced to the team, one of my children created the first pitch document with an unprecedented level and presented it to me! Stadium has put a long way since then, but I always think of my son when I play.
Early versions looked a little different from the mode that you play today. Stadium initially focused on offering as much variety as possible. It was built as an eight-team tournament. In every round, the players chose random upgrades that they could use in Team Deathmatch or against AI combat phases, and lost health if they lost the round. However, it was difficult to create a coherent strategy or builds to counter opponents if the decisions were made by random selection.
This change to today's format reflects a change in our way of thinking: we still want that there are variety from game to game in stadium, but variety is no longer the greatest priority. We want you to feel balanced and competitive and at the same time make epic builds through strategic decisions based on the performance and heroic combination of everyone in the game.
Present
Speaking of balance and competitiveness: The team is already planning adjustments based on the feedback and the data that we have received since the start.
While we often find a large increase in the season shortly after the start of a new sparkle -nail -nail event, the season in the stage has remained a little more stable. In the first week, about 50 % of all hours were in Overwatch 2 spent on stage!
As far as Builds and hero balance are concerned, we will collect data in the next few weeks to see which changes have to be made for the midseason balance patch, if not earlier.
There are many gears behind the scenes when it comes to stage. The development team answered some of your burning questions in a Reddit AMA at the beginning of this week, and we will share further insights and stage data in a special Director's Take next week.
Future
If you like to play stage, you will be happy to hear that we have many big plans for it. There will be seasonal updates for stadium that contain the publication of new heroes, maps, game modes, systems and functions, as well as the usual care that we are in other modes from surveillance put.
What will come to the stage in the next two seasons? A lot!
The team has just published a comprehensive roadmap for stage that shows more of our future plans for the mode.
- Heroes: Our newest growth in surveillance-Ader will also be the first new heroine to be added: Freja comes to the stage and will arrive with the Midseason Patch from season 16. But she's not the only one! We will add several new heroes every season because we believe that adding new heroes for the stage is of crucial importance. Every time we have published a new addition internally, it completely changed the meta and the way we thought about putting together a build. In seasons 17 and 18 you will have seven new heroes to play!
- Game modes: We plan to publish a new game mode within the stage called Payoad Race, and with it two brand new cards will appear. In addition, we will integrate a new mechanics that we describe internally as “quests”. At the beginning of each game, the players choose from a random sentence of quests that release rewards after completing the goals.
- Systems: We are very happy about new content in the stadium, but we believe that systems that influence the way in which you put together a build can have even greater effects. In season 17 we will publish a build importer and exporter. This not only enables the players to put together builds outside of a stadium game and then select them within a game, but also enables them to select from community builds.
You also commented on a topic that is very important to us: Cross-Play! Since the stage has a competitive system, it follows the rules of our core competition mode, which does not allow PC and console players to join together. Since this is the only way to play the mode, we agree and want to do something about it. We are currently investigating whether it would be possible to create an unchecked version of the mode. This would enable groups of friends to play together and would give us the opportunity to make other changes, possibly the introduction of a best-of-5 format for the mode.
Before I say goodbye, I would like to once again the team's commitment to the core modes of surveillance reaffirm. We still invest as much time, energy and passion in this modes as ever. Stadium does not compete for these resources: we have more options for us surveillance to present in a new, exciting way.
We can't wait to show you what's coming, especially in season 18. It will be a blast! Have fun with the stage and let's have a great game as always. “
Aaron
