Overwatch 2 is titled as a sequel but it will function more like an expansion to the hero-based shooter, as more details about the upcoming game were revealed by director Jeff Kaplan.
In an interview with Kotaku at BlizzCon 2019, Kaplan told Kotaku that new maps and heroes will arrive to Overwatch 1 and 2 at the same time, and once the sequel arrives, its predecessor will also receive all the graphical upgrades.
The plan, according to Kaplan, is to eventually merge the clients of the two games, in order to avoid “fragmenting the player base.” The combined clients will also ensure that competition will remain fair, as players will not have an advantage over others just because they are on a newer version of the Overwatch engine.
Kaplan’s answer was part of a wider conversation on how the secret development of Overwatch 2 caused stagnation in the original game, which was seen through the repetition of seasonal events. Kaplan thinks that the team was still able to do enough, with the addition of new heroes, the role queue system, and Workshop mode, but he believes that updates will ramp up once again after the sequel is released.
Those updates will include at least four heroes, according to a report by Game Informer’s Andrew Reiner, who visited the Overwatch development team in early October. Kaplan showed Reiner a PowerPoint presentation that featured the new content for the sequel, and one of the slides contained four unfamiliar silhouettes, three of whom he believed were female heroes.
The first of the two characters that he got a good look at was a male “wizard, warlock, or voodoo priest” with a crooked staff. The second was a short-haired female that wielded “a giant four-sided weapon” similar to the shuriken of Final Fantasy VII‘s Yuffie, with a “fuzzy little critter” by her side that had an aggressive stance.
Kaplan quickly switched slides so Reiner did not get a good look at the other two silhouettes, and no further information was given about them. It is unclear if the two other heroes are Sojourn and Echo, who were featured in the Overwatch 2 announcement trailer, and if the four heroes will be added upon launch or in staggered releases.
Overwatch 2 was announced at BlizzCon 2019 with a cinematic that featured several familiar heroes, including Tracer, Mei, and Genji. Blizzard has not revealed a release date for the sequel.
