Seagull explains why BlizzCon’s Overwatch 2 reveal is “bittersweet”

Former Overwatch League pro Brandon ‘Seagull’ Larned has called the announcement of Overwatch 2 at BlizzCon 2019 “bittersweet” after trialling the alpha on the floor at the event.

Overwatch 2’s announcement has given Blizzard’s tactical shooter a much needed hype boost. Community concerns surrounding slow patch releases for the original game, as well as a lack of fresh content, have been silenced for the most part in light of the sequel’s reveal.

However, there’s still some questions surrounding the major change in the game’s direction. The addition of PvE and new content will give the Overwatch franchise a welcomed facelift, but how Blizzard goes about releasing and monetizing it remains to be seen. This has led to comments by Overwatch personalities like Seagull, who are holding out some scepticism for the sequel.

Seagull was at BlizzCon alongside the likes of Twitch star Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel and popular Atlanta Reign streamer Francine ‘FRAN’ Vo testing out the alpha demo of Overwatch 2, which included a four-player PvE mission and a PvP mode. 

• Read more: Overwatch 2 to carry over skins and unlocks

While he seemed generally impressed by it throughout his stream, he had a lot of questions about how the game will look once it’s launched.

“PvE mode, depending on how deep the customization there is, and how much content there is, could be very cool,” he said. “It all depends on how the game is monetized.

“I currently don’t have enough knowledge. Do we know price? Do we know release time? Do we know how much content there is? How many missions are there going to be?”

• Read more: xQc’s first impressions of Overwatch 2 are pretty positive

“This is high levels of replayability – we know there’s an expert mode. Are they going to have ranks? Is this going to be something like Mythic Dungeons like World of Warcraft? You can really take this far.”

After the event, the former Dallas Fuel off-tank tweeted about how he felt like this BlizzCon was “bittersweet” for fans of the game.

“I’m happy Overwatch is getting some cool content,” he said. “I’m sad it seems to be far away while the current Overwatch feels so rough to play with seemingly no big changes in sight until then.”

• Read more: Overwatch 2 has no set release date

Some players, like Seagull, feel like current players are going to be neglected while the sequel’s development rocks forward. While there were some announcements for new content, like heroes Sojourn and Echo, it’s unclear whether those will arrive for the original game or the sequel.

While Overwatch 2 is undeniably a good change for the franchise, players shouldn’t hold their breath for its release any time soon. Blizzard have said they are going dark to work on getting the game out as soon as possible.

In the meantime, Overwatch fanatics will have to hope that the original game’s development doesn’t get put on the backburner, and that Blizzard can keep the interest high through a steady stream of good content.