Blizzard Leisure has laid out plans to start testing for the potential return of 6v6 matchups in Overwatch 2…ultimately.
The replace on the controversy plaguing the Overwatch group comes from sport director Aaron Keller, who posted a 3600-word Director’s Take weblog put up on the topic right this moment. It’s a prolonged assertion on the historical past of 6v6, why it was eliminated with the launch of Overwatch 2, and the way Blizzard plans to experiment with the mode as soon as once more. That’s proper – the group is considering bringing again the 12-player choice practically two years after it was swapped out for the faster-paced 5v5 mode.
“The group has, juuuust a few times, recommended a take a look at,” Keller says. “Why not put varied types of 6v6 within the sport with a view to gauge the outcomes? We agree, and primarily based in your suggestions, we’re exploring how we will take a look at totally different types of 6v6 within the sport to gauge the outcomes.”
Keller says that whereas the group stays centered on ironing out 5v5, it’s also “ operating a collection of occasions to check out totally different core group composition codecs in Overwatch 2.” Even the smallest signal of 6v6 is sufficient to reignite curiosity in gamers who’ve begged for its return, however implementing these exams will not be so simple as simply flipping a change. Technological challenges offered by 12-player lobbies is among the largest hurdles to beat. The sport director explains that, whereas the group is investigating a everlasting efficiency enhance throughout all platforms, it’s a “giant effort that may more than likely take not less than a number of seasons to perform.” There’s additionally the problem of queue occasions, which may very well be probably inflated throughout the complete Overwatch 2 expertise ought to one thing like 6v6 stick round.
Regardless of how badly some gamers need 6v6 again, alterations to the Overwatch 2 system current new challenges to beat. Although Keller says a brand new iteration of Fast Play: Hacked will experiment with group meeting in some unspecified time in the future throughout Season 13, it’s not precisely clear when official testing will start. He cautions that this proposed reintroduction of 6v6 might be a protracted course of and that right this moment’s put up is simply the “begin of this dialog.”
“We’d run the take a look at for just a few weeks and gauge curiosity from the group,” Keller explains when talking on the good thing about the exams. “Then we’d measure the affect it had on the opposite experiences in Overwatch 2, like 5v5, Arcade, and many others. We’d take the teachings from this playtest to see what we will be taught in regards to the mode inside the present sport ecosystem and for the way forward for Overwatch. We’d replicate fastidiously on the learnings from no matter take a look at we run and discover methods to greatest give gamers what’s being requested for. Whether or not that’s a world of 5v5, 6v6 and even each, is for future us to determine.”
Let’s break it down
Overwatch launched in 2016 and has since slowly advanced into a completely totally different beast. As Blizzard has labored to ascertain truthful and enjoyable sport environments, it has added, gutted, and altered all kinds of sport modes. As famous by Keller, these adjustments embrace stricter Hero limits in Fast Play, the addition of the extra inflexible mode generally known as Position Queue, and naturally, the change to 5v5.
The unique Overwatch used the 6v6 format as its go-to construction till the complete expertise was changed with Overwatch 2 in 2022. This free-to-play sequel swapped in 5v5 matches, with Blizzard’s reasoning on the time being that it will scale back battlefield muddle and result in a cleaner, extra satisfying expertise for all three roles – Tank, Harm, and Assist. Keller stands by the choice, saying that 5v5 is “extra cognitively manageable” than the 6v6 matchups. It additionally led to drastically shorter queue occasions in Position Queue, particularly for many who queued as much as play Harm Heroes.
Keller acknowledges that 6v6 nonetheless has its upsides, and the choice to take away it was not made calmly. Nonetheless, there are those that desire the unique format to this present day and have even campaigned for its return. Requires Blizzard to incorporate a 6v6 choice reached a boiling level the previous couple of months, with many gamers complaining that 5v5 is extra punishing on a person stage, particularly when queueing as much as play Tank. With tensions within the Overwatch group rising, Blizzard has lastly stepped in.
Keller has been teasing plans to supply extra perception into Blizzard’s perspective for a number of weeks, and right this moment’s put up seemingly goes into extra element than many had been anticipating. Nonetheless, because the director talked about, the studio has lots of work and listening to do earlier than group composition exams start, and even then, it’s unclear if these experiments will yield the outcomes its group wishes.
Overwatch 2 Season 11 Trailer Screenshots
In the meantime, Overwatch 2 is barreling towards the tip of Season 11 of its post-launch roadmap. Whereas particulars on how Season 12 will up the ante largely stay a thriller, the studio did simply wrap up a weekend playtest for its new Assist Hero, Juno, an agile space-themed competitor with attention-grabbing ties to the Overwatch universe. This newest addition to the roster will return as a totally playable character when Season 12 launches subsequent month.
Michael Cripe is a contract contributor with IGN. He began writing within the trade in 2017 and is greatest identified for his work at shops resembling The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
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