Overwatch 2 director says devs’ mindset is driving changes

Overwatch 2’s ambitious 2025 plans include a lot of new and different content, and it’s all in an effort to make the game as good as it can possibly be, both for Blizzard Entertainment and the game’s players.

In a new interview with GamesRadar, OW2 game director Aaron Keller admitted that there’s some pressure on Blizzard to produce and iterate on the game to introduce changes to the existing product, especially after a negative sentiment has surrounded it due to the game not becoming what it was advertised as: a true sequel, and one with a PvE component at that.

“There is pressure on the Overwatch team, and a lot of it is internal,” Keller said to GamesRadar. “It’s [asking] how do we make the best possible game that we can? And we’ve been feeling it for a while. You know, a lot of the things that we’re announcing for seasons 15 and 16, like perks and Stadium, they’re things that have been in development for Overwatch for quite some time. And I think what’s driving that is, when we look at our game, we feel like it’s either missing something or it hasn’t evolved as much as it should have.”

Many players would likely agree that there’s something “missing” in OW2, but several additions coming in 2025 including mid-match upgrades called hero Perks, an innovative new third-person mode called Stadium, and new heroes has Blizzard looking to shake things up to fill whatever perceived holes there may be.

Keller acknowledged how the game felt a little stale, especially for players who had sunk hundreds or thousands of hours into Overwatch over the game’s life cycle. He noted how the team wanted to inject “a bit of freshness” into the experience and give players new ways to express themselves in the game without relying on gimmicks or changes just for the sake of variety.

He also said that, although these and other plans (like hero bans coming to Competitive Play) have been in motion for some time, the team is excited about what the updates will bring in light of fresh competition in the hero shooter market from the hugely popular Marvel Rivals.

“We’re obviously in a new competitive landscape that I think, for Overwatch, we’ve never really been in before, to this extent where there’s another game that’s so similar to the one that we’ve created,” Keller said. “There’s actually something kind of exciting about this, for a few reasons. One of those is, it’s really great to see a game kind of take a different direction with some of the things you’ve kind of looked at before. But also, we think it’s a forcing function to our team – this is no longer about playing it safe. And I really think that seasons 15 and 16 are us not playing it safe.”

Season 15 adds Perks and 16 adds a new hero and Stadium, so 2025 looks to be full of some fresh content for the game. And with these different kinds of tweaks to the OW2 formula, Keller knows there’s risks, but the team will be actively trying to keep everything copacetic amidst the winds of change.

“At the end of the day, I think players want us to be taking risks,” he said. He also noted how the team is trying to make sure those risks are “responsible” and don’t break the game, but that the risk of trying out these big, new changes is ultimately worth it—especially if they turn out to be great.