It feels wild to say but Overwatch was originally released over eight years ago. Although there has been additional content and hero’s released to keep the game up to date fans of the first-person shooter have been looking forward to the sequel for quite some time. In fact, the original Overwatch 2 cinematic announcement was released all the way back in 2019. So fans have known a sequel has been in development for years but it wasn’t until September of 2021 that they received the official announcement of the highly anticipated game. The question now becomes what can we expect from the highly anticipated next installment of Overwatch?
PVP and PVE
It is clear fans love the cinematics that Blizzard releases to introduce characters and new content. So it’s not surprising Overwatch 2 is rumored to feature a lot more cinematics, mythology, story, Hero’s and sets than the original game. This will be evident in the newly added PVE missions which will be a new aspect of the game.
PVP will consist of 5v5 teams. This is a slight change from the current 6v6 playstyle but the development team feels this will lead to new team configurations and more complex gameplay. While the gameplay may be more complex because less is happening on the map, it will make playing and streaming the game much simpler and streamlined.
Overwatch League
Despite an unclear release schedule for Overwatch 2 it is clearly not impacting the popularity of the game. The 2021 season of the Overwatch League has seen a dramatic increase in viewership for the regular season. For example, the very first tournament of the season was the May Melee. This event saw a viewership of 113,000 which is a 79% increase from the 2020 season. Those are some serious viewership numbers for regular season esports matches.
At the moment it is rumored pro-players in the league will be playing on an Overwatch 2 build of the game. It will be interesting to see how their stats change with the new software. Fans can easily track player stats with playgrid. While pros won’t have access to a full version of the game it will be using some of the new systems. Some have speculated this is a good hint that the full game will be released in 2022 near the start of the Overwatch season but this is honestly most likely wishful thinking.
The Future Is Always Out Of Reach
Three years is a long time to have pass between announcing a sequel to a beloved game and the release of the game yet at this point, we still don’t know when the release will actually occur. In 2019 game director Jeff Kaplan stated, “I don’t know. I have no idea…Like, just let us make it great, that’s what we care about more than anything. We don’t have a date in mind.” Seems like an easy enough request to make but all this time later fans are starting to grow impatient. Let’s see if Blizzard can capitalize on the demand for Overwatch 2 or if they will let the heat die down and with it their chance of a successful sequel.