Jeff Kaplan reveals how and when new heroes and maps in Overwatch are set to be released.
A large part of the Overwatch team is working on new content – more info this summer
In a comprehensive interview with the colleagues from Eurogamer, Jeff Kaplan, the Game Director of Overwatch, spoke not only about the upcoming Ranked Play and the upcoming nerf for Cowboy McCree but also about the release plans for new content.
Despite the fantastic launch of Overwatch, the developers are not resting on their laurels. According to Kaplan, for many employees, not much has changed with the launch, as they hardly noticed the release during their working time.
“We have parts of the team that are working on so many things in the game that many of us perceived the launch only peripherally, with ‘Oh, yes, the release just happened.'”
There is no fixed date for new maps and heroes yet, but they plan to release new information “later in the summer.” Probably, however, only after the ranked mode has been implemented.
Kaplan further states about the scope of upcoming patches:
“We believe that we will learn a lot from the first updates. One example from the beta is that we thought our release rate was quite good, but a large part of the team found the simultaneous release of Mei, D.Va, and Genji too disruptive for the game. That was a lesson we learned. When we start with our first new heroes after the launch, we will always release only one at a time until we are convinced that the game has stabilized.”
The first content patches for Overwatch will be experiments in which the community will be asked for feedback to find out whether an update provides too much or too little new content.
Especially the release of three heroes during the beta caused quite a controversy within the community, Kaplan remembers.
“Looking back and reading the feedback from that time when we released the three heroes at once, fans demanded that all these heroes should be removed from the game. They were all overpowered and had to disappear. Looking at it today, D.Va and Genji (maybe not Mei) are among the most popular heroes. I believe Mei is one of the most popular characters due to her cute personality, but many players find [her mechanics] annoying. But back then, players wanted us to remove these heroes. Therefore, we will be careful not to overdo it with a patch.”
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