Of all the changes made in the transition from Overwatch 1 to 2, the move from 6v6 battles to 5v5 was undoubtedly one of its most controversial. And now developer Blizzard Entertainment has confirmed its’s revisiting that decision, exploring if and how 6v6 matches could be re-introduced to Overwatch 2 in a series of upcoming tests.
All this is detailed in a blog from Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller, who begins by explaining exactly why the move to 5v5 was made in the first place. “The world of 6v6 could have really high, highs,” he writes, “but reaaaally low, lows. One of the design goals of 5v5 was to try to raise that floor, even though it was at the expense of some of some of those high moments.”
As such, 5v5 was chosen to increase individual agency, to better balance the impact each class can have in a match, to make the experience more “cognitively manageable, and – perhaps most significantly of all – to alleviate extremely long queue times. “Players generally queue Tank less,” continues Keller, “leading to longer wait times for all while we wait for a Tank to free up to find a proper match.” And with Overwatch 2 requiring one rather than two tanks in competitive play, average wait times for damage and support characters are now “much shorter”.
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