Overwatch Director wants to “fundamentally change” OW2 beyond new heroes and maps

Overwatch 2 Game Director Aaron Keller says the team’s goal is to add more strategic elements that can’t be found by just creating new heroes and maps.

Overwatch 2 is currently having a bit of an identity crisis and is trying to determine whether 5v5, 6v6, or some other format is the best direction for the game. To do this, it is running a series of tests.

As players anxiously wait to see how Overwatch 2 will work in 6v6, Aaron Keller and Lead Gameplay Designer Alec Dawson appeared on Coach Spilo’s Twitch stream to discuss the game’s future and what they have planned.

According to Keller, the team’s vision for the game is to make it a “serious competitive game.”

(segment begins at 2:36:28)

“We put a lot of time into talking and thinking about the game that way. That doesn’t mean there can’t be more strategic depth in an Overwatch match. A lot of Overwatch is a tactical game where it’s just what’s happening in that moment-to-moment gameplay and the way your team is operating,” he explained.

“You might have some bigger decisions like what hero you want to swap to, but there’s not a ton of choice that happens over a course of that match besides the team fighting. We’d love to be able to introduce more of that. We’d want people to think there is more of a story to a match and have different things to look forward to over the course of a match.”

Although Keller didn’t elaborate on this desire for more “strategy,” while speaking with Dexerto earlier this year, he listed a hero pick-ban system as an example of how the team could implement “strategic depth.”

Keller also noted that just adding new maps and heroes won’t necessarily accomplish those goals.

“I don’t think just adding new heroes, maps and modes is how you accomplish that. A new hero will do that for, I don’t know, a few days to a month or two depending on what type of player it’s for. And you still might find your new main or new favorite when we release a hero, but it doesn’t fundamentally change what Overwatch is and the way that you think of any particular match and I think we need a little bit more of that going into the game.”

The Game Director added that he feels historically, the team has played things too safe when it comes to systems and changes, so players should expect more significant updates going forward.

We’ll have to see what the devs have cooking up, especially with the long-awaited return of 6v6 in Season 14.