Overwatch 2's New Director Has A Plan

On April 20, Jeff Kaplan, designer of numerous Blizzard games, including "World of Warcraft" and "Overwatch," publicly exited from the studio. His departure meant the company lost yet another member of its old guard, which didn't do any favors for the development of "Overwatch 2," for which he served as the game's director. Although "Overwatch 2" has previously been delayed into "it will be ready when it is ready" territory, the game's new director, Aaron Keller, plans to make sure that it releases as soon as possible and hits the ground running when it does.

Recently, GameSpot got the chance to interview Keller and learned his thoughts on his new position, his vision for "Overwatch 2," and how Kaplan's departure has affected him. Of note was Keller's reaction regarding the current climate of rapid game iteration and how it painted plans for "Overwatch 2." 

Keller promised to "accelerate the development process," and went on to praise all the new modes, characters, and maps that were added to the original "Overwatch" after launch. Keller stated, "I think that this is something that when I start looking forward, just personally, [about] what I think we ought to be doing for the future, it's that and more [that] we need to put out." In other words, he wants the development team to "[release] as much as we possibly can for the game," which means tons of post-launch content.

However, even though the team behind "Overwatch 2" plans to keep it constantly updated to compete with rival live service titles such as "Fortnite" and "Apex Legends," the developers don't intend to adopt all the hallmarks of a live service game. For example, Keller is unsure whether "Overwatch 2" will feature a battle pass, but he wants to make the game "feel like it has a constant heartbeat, that there are a lot of updates." Moreover, don't expect the game to pop out broken updates, as Keller will try to stick to Blizzard's "commit to quality" values. 

Keller has "a lot of big plans" for "Overwatch 2" and its post-launch content. The game is designed to attract a wider audience since it is adding PvE modes, which were mostly absent in the original. In order to keep competitive PvP and cooperative PvE players engaged, Blizzard might have to double down on updates, keeping two modes alive at once. Only time will tell if Keller can follow through.