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Resetting a huge live-service game like Overwatch 2 is a risky move, but one that's paid off for Blizzard already. Retitling the FPS to Overwatch, adding several new heroes, and providing a narrative reset have reinvigorated the shooter's community, providing the exact kind of second wind the devs were hoping for.
Alec Dawson, associate game director on Overwatch, tells PCGamesN about the team's current blend of nervousness and excitement. "You dream of these types of things. It's the beginning of a comeback," he stated.
"Early last year we were talking about all these plans and how we were going to execute and lead up to releasing five heroes at once," he adds. "A lot of effort went into that, and seeing the result of that is something that the team's been ecstatic about."
Putting out one fresh member of the roster can be a headache, doing five was ambitious. But minus some mixed feedback on Anran, Blizzard's largely managed to pull it off, even giving us Jetpack Cat, the current unofficial mascot of the whole game. Things are looking up, quite literally, as player records skyrocket.
"We actually had a bigger Saturday than our first Saturday after launch with Season 1," Dawson reveals. "There's that momentum that's continuing; there are a lot of people coming back to try the game again and there are a ton of new heroes, there's perks, there's Stadium - a lot of things they haven't seen before."
Now that the series is ten years old, the devs have managed to create an ideal jumping on point for newer fans, as well as those who've lapsed. That's not an easy task on this scale, and now the job becomes harnessing this energy for the foreseeable future. "We want to push this momentum and continue making sure we're making the best game for all the Overwatch fans," Dawson states.
