Overwatch 2 Director Thinks Marvel Rivals Competition is „Exciting”
As Marvel Rivals continue to top Steam charts, many wonder about the fate of Overwatch 2. The director talked about how internal pressure helps push new ideas.
According to the director of Overwatch 2, the competition from Marvel Rivals is actually “exciting.” This might not be apparent given one of the only comparable metrics between the two games: Steam players. Since launching at the end of 2024, Marvel Rivals has remained a top contender on Steam’s most-played chart. Overwatch 2, on the other hand, over the last few months, has seen a record low player count.
Overwatch 2 director says Marvel Rivals competition is “kind of exciting”
Both games are massive pillars in the competitive hero shooter genre, but Marvel Rivals has only been publicly available since December. Overwatch started strong in 2016, winning Game of the Year that year, but since morphing into Overwatch 2 it has been on a downward spiral. The “sequel” made the original game unplayable, switched to a free-to-play model, and put new heroes behind a battle pass. In the few years since, Overwatch 2 has started to right the ship, but many fans wonder if it might be too late.
Aaron Keller, the director of Blizzard’s free-to-play FPS, spoke about competitor Marvel Rivals in an interview with GamesRadar+. When asked if Keller welcomes competition within the genre, Keller responded with: “We’re obviously in a new competitive landscape that I think, for Overwatch, we’ve never really been in before… There’s actually something kind of exciting about this, for a few reasons.” Keller talked about how the development team is no longer “playing it safe” as Overwatch 2 looks ahead to season 15 and 16.
When asked about what kind of pressure the Overwatch 2 team is under with this new competition, Keller said “There is pressure on the Overwatch team, and a lot of it is internal… a lot of the things we’re announcing for seasons 15 and 16… they’re things that have been in development for Overwatch for quite some time. And I think what’s driving that is, when we look at our game, we feel like it’s either missing something or it hasn’t evolved as much as it should have.” Based on this, it sounds like the development team understands the pressure they are under, and it could end up being just the push that Overwatch needs.
But what, you may ask, are the big changes planned for the next two seasons of Overwatch 2? Season 15 of the hero shooter (which launches tomorrow) will introduce perks, which will change how the character plays in the middle of a match. This allows players to adapt their character based on the situation. Not only does this give some heroes like Sombra the ability to lighten the healing load, but it also brings back some long-forgotten character abilities like Orisa’s barrier and Reaper’s healing souls.
Season 16, expected to launch in April, will introduce a new game mode: Stadium. This new mode draws on round-based shooting games like Counter-Strike and Valorant in a best of seven 5v5 match. Between rounds, players earn currency which they can use to customize and augment their character’s abilities. The level of complexity here means that when Stadium launches it will have a smaller roster of available characters, but the rest of the cast will be added over time.
While I was skeptical at first about what Overwatch 2 is doing to keep up with competition, and why Marvel Rivals might be “exciting” for developers, I understand now. The Overwatch team was so far up at the top that even with the disaster that was Overwatch 2, they didn’t feel the pressure to innovate. Now, with Marvel Rivals hitting huge with players, Overwatch 2 needs to pull out all the stops to bring players back. With the first of these two pivotal seasons launching tomorrow, it will be exciting to see how the world reacts.
