Ever since December 19th, Blizzard’s Overwatch team has been silent. Having gone on break, and promising to return in 2016, the closed beta of Overwatch has been offline for just over a month now without any news. Thankfully, the Overwatch team has finally broken the silence and given us some news on the upcoming Blizzard title.
According to a news post on the Overwatch forum, the team has been focused on addressing player feedback, as well as game balance. While they had hoped to get the beta back online by the middle of January, game director Jeff Kaplan has now stated that the game will not be returning until mid-February. This is due to the team’s desire to work on some of the core features of the game, such as player progression, something that they have already released a video about late last year.
In this developer update, Jeff Kaplan talks about what potential player-progress systems they have considered in the past
That’s not all. According to the news post, the Overwatch team has also been looking at adding a completely new game mode. Currently, Overwatch‘s only two game modes are Payload and Point Capture. While these modes were widely accepted as fun, an overwhelming number of players were dissatisfied with the lack of other game modes to play.
Kaplan did not go into detail about what this new game mode will entail, but he did mention that it will likely be released alongside the next closed beta patch, along with new maps to support it.
“Rather than try to rush a beta patch out this month (which would mean the new game mode would have to be put off), we’re going to take a few extra weeks before bringing the Closed Beta back. By doing so, we can make sure we can include the new game mode along with the new maps. This will also allow us to do some additional polish to the game’s progression and reward system. Though all these features will still technically be a work-in-progress during the beta, we’d like them to be at a certain quality bar before releasing them for testing.”
While it may be painful for some closed beta participants to wait another month before the game comes back online, it is good to know that the Overwatch team is listening to its fans. A new game mode, maps, and functional progression system are certainly things that will be worth waiting for. The question is: will there be any new heroes announced in the meantime?
What do you think of this delay? Did you get a chance to play any of the closed beta segments? What are your thoughts on potential game modes? Leave your ideas in the comments section below!
