Overwatch 2 devs want to see bigger collabs with special maps

Overwatch 2 devs are interested in making bigger collaborations with popular IP, even designing special maps around them, but they admit creating them presents its own set of difficulties. 

Maps in Overwatch have historically had winter reskins when Christmas time rolls around. With fan favorites Kings Row, Black Forest, and Hanamura receiving a nice snowy blanket over their buildings during the Winter Wonderland event. 

It’s often a welcome surprise for a lot of players, as it provides a decent change of pace to their typically sunny, or nighttime, environments.

And when Overwatch 2 released in October, players got to explore a Halloween version of Eichenwalde during the Halloween Terror event. Turning the quaint Germanic castle town into a horror house. 

Now, with Overwatch’s recent collab with One Punch Man, bringing Saitama, Terrible Tornado, and Mumen Rider into the game, questions came up if we would ever see a bigger collab in Overwatch, one not just centered around skins. 

In a recent interview Dexerto attended, we asked Overwatch’s devs if they were ever interested in creating map crossovers with other intellectual properties. 

Overwatch’s Art Director Dion Rogers said the team wants to do it and has explored the idea of doing it in the past. However, he admits it has a lot of difficulties that come with it.

He explained, “The difficult part with map crossovers is that it does take a lot of work to make an Overwatch map, and we play test them to death, and even then they still have their challenges.”

However, he isn’t discounting the idea entirely. He says if they can find the right fit, it could work. Rogers gave the example of the Hidden Leaf Village in Naruto, and if they could somehow fit it in Overwatch it would be wonderful. 

The main problem, he points out, is that map development has a lot of layers to it. Such as balancing, competitive readiness, and visibility. But he did not completely rule the idea out.