Developer Blizzard Entertainment shared a new Overwatch Director’s Take dedicated to the game’s future formats.
“Future innovation is an important topic on Team 4, and game format is one of the most frequently discussed systems; that’s what we’ll be exploring today. Changes like this can have a big impact on the core feel of the game. We don’t take them lightly, but we are committed to continually improving Overwatch and this is one of the biggest ways we can do it.”
The team focused on discussing specific team sizes or past versions of Overwatch, wondering if there was another way. And the latter half of Season 3 will run a few experimental 6v6 Quick Play events to test exactly that.
However, the team notes that the result or success of these experiments doesn’t necessarily mean a change to the main format of the game. These findings could inspire the developers to tweak existing core modes or create new Arcade modes.
Other discussed experiments and future formats include:
- Flex Queue (the testing is underway) – a hybdrid format between Role Queue 2-2-2 and Open Queue. You’ll queue into a flexible 1-3-2 team format where there will always be at least 1 Tank, 3 Flex Damage dealers, and 2 Supports. The twist in this Quick Play Hacked is that any of the Damage dealers can choose to play a Tank Hero, but only one of them can do so at a time.
- Dynamic Queue (July 30 to August 2) – a blend of Role Queue 2-2-2 matches and Flex Queue matches. The matchmaker will be aiming for 2-2-2 matches, but based on the number of people queued for Tank, it will start matches in the Flex Queue format mentioned above. Think of the shift into Flex Queue format as a “release valve” for the 2-2-2 queue.
Running these tests will also allow Blizzard to collect more data and decide where to put their attention in the future. No single weekend of testing can give the team enough clarity to complete base future decisions on data alone. And this is where community feedback comes in.
“Overall, the most helpful thing you can do for us is very simple: play the experimental modes! Give them a chance and go into those queues with an open mind. The pace of fights and general vibe of these matches may seem very different. Spend time getting used to how they feel and see if your initial reactions change over the mode’s duration.”
