Developer Update: Hero Releases, Mythics, and Gameplay Updates

[Lumy]

Developer Update: Hero Releases, Mythics, and Gameplay Updates

Greetings, heroes! We have big updates on the horizon we're excited to share with you.

Hero Releases

Let's kick things off with the stars of our game – the heroes.

Starting Season 10, all new heroes will be immediately unlocked when they launch. All existing heroes will also be unlocked for players. This means that heroes will no longer need to be unlocked through the Battle Pass to be playable in all game modes.

New players will still need to complete the first-time user experience to unlock heroes as they learn the ropes. Once the heroes from the original Overwatch roster have been unlocked, all Overwatch 2 heroes will also become available.

Last year at BlizzCon, we gave a sneak peek at our 40^th hero, Venture, showcasing their unique underground mechanics and daring, adventurous spirit. We’re excited to share that all players will have immediate access to Venture when they officially join the Overwatch 2 lineup in Season 10.

Mythic Changes

We want to provide you with more control over how you earn Mythic hero skins. Season 10 will introduce changes to how you earn, upgrade, and unlock Mythic hero skins through the new Mythic Shop.

The Mythic Shop will allow you to work towards past and current seasonal Mythic hero skins as you progress through the Premium Battle Pass. You get to decide how far into each Mythic skin you would like to build. So, for example, if you don't want to fully unlock all of a skin's color or model variations, you can spread your progression towards other Mythic hero skins.

We’re also adding past Mythic hero skins to the Mythic Shop, giving you the opportunity to pick up your favorites. Seasonal Mythic hero skins will be available two seasons after their debut. This means Mythic hero skins from Seasons 1 through 7 will be available in the Mythic Shop starting Season 10.

We’ll share more information on the Mythic Shop and additional changes to the Premium Battle Pass as we get closer to Season 10.

Challenges and Coins

Starting Season 10, you will earn coins as you progress through the Free and Premium tracks of the Battle Pass, making them easier and more consistent to earn. We’re also increasing the number of coins you can earn for free from 540 to 600 coins per season.

Weekly challenges will be more flexible to fit with your playstyle, and they will now reward Battle Pass XP.

Keeping Gameplay Fresh

Beyond heroes and customization, we’re also continuing to look at ways to refresh the core of Overwatch 2's gameplay. Season 9 saw big changes to Competitive and core gameplay mechanics. Our vision in the long term is to maintain a regular heartbeat in the game by consistently introducing new or updated systems, shaking up the meta, implementing rank resets, and introducing new rewards. We’re looking at how often this happens and listening closely to your feedback.

We're committed to making Overwatch 2 as fair, fun, and competitive as possible.

More Maps to Explore

We’re excited to share plans on how we release and update maps.

The brand-new mode we introduced at BlizzCon 2023, Clash, will make its debut this year with two accompanying maps. Get ready for intense action in the limited-time Clash trial on the new Hanaoka map at the start of Season 10. We’re excited to hear your feedback.

Season 11 will introduce Runasapi, the new Push map set against the stunning backdrop of Peru in the world of Illari and the Inti Warriors. We're reworking some existing maps as well. Season 11 will also bring a reworked Colosseo.

We’ve been listening to your feedback on Dorado, Circuit Royale, Havana, and Numbani. We’re working on significant updates for these maps, so keep letting us know what other maps you would like us to look at in the future.

---

Overwatch 2 is evolving every season, and your feedback is a huge part of that evolution. As we approach Season 10 and beyond, the team is committed to delivering a fun experience for everyone.

Stay tuned for another Developer Update closer to Season 10 that covers upcoming competitive and Defense Matrix updates including how we’re addressing disruptive player behavior, grouping restrictions and competitive, and player anonymity.

Thank you for being a part of this incredible journey – let's make a great game!

[Ealyssa]

Dead game tries to be less greedy…

I loved OW1 so much. Truly a shame how they destroyed it in pursue of ALL the money.

[Woggmer]

...Two years too late on freeing up those heroes.

[PenguinChan]

So the dev team realized OW1 > OW2 and now they're gearing up to slow the game down, make it easier to play, and (seemingly) bring back 6v6, lol. Such a fucking waste of dev time and resources to do this, but it's better than them ruining the game forever. Uphill climb from here, next big thing they could do besides a return to form would be to actually have a PVE mode that's more like they promised.

And ultimately, but unrealistically, bring back Jeff since he clearly had a much better handle and vision on the game than those working on it now. At least something like Chris Metzen did with Warcraft: An advisor and such.

[Zuben]

Steps in the right direction. Hard to hate anything about the Dev Update this time. Unless Clash ends up sucking as much as Flashpoint.

Weekly challenges will be more flexible to fit with your playstyle, and they will now reward Battle Pass XP.

Would love it if this means I get to skip Flex and Mystery Heroes/Arcade weeklies. Though I'm confused, haven't they always rewarded BP XP?

[Jester Joe]

Steps in the right direction. Hard to hate anything about the Dev Update this time. Unless Clash ends up sucking as much as Flashpoint.

Weekly challenges will be more flexible to fit with your playstyle, and they will now reward Battle Pass XP.

Would love it if this means I get to skip Flex and Mystery Heroes/Arcade weeklies. Though I'm confused, haven't they always rewarded BP XP?

They do, each one would give bp xp individually and you'd get the currency for completing multiple in a week. I think it's like 5k a weekly.

[Woggmer]

So the dev team realized OW1 > OW2 and now they're gearing up to slow the game down, make it easier to play, and (seemingly) bring back 6v6, lol. Such a fucking waste of dev time and resources to do this, but it's better than them ruining the game forever. Uphill climb from here, next big thing they could do besides a return to form would be to actually have a PVE mode that's more like they promised.

Bit late, but I don't think I have any confidence they'll bring back anything remotely PVE in the future. Y'know those layoffs they did several weeks ago? While WoW wasn't as badly effected, Overwatch 2 was.. they laid off their PvE devs [and from what I've heard] both Activision and Microsoft didn't have any confidence in PvE being a success with the way it was.

So now, any hope of PvE for this game has gone up in flames... and it'd be more lucrative just to sell expensive collaboration skins [i.e. Cowboy Bebop skins].

[PenguinChan]

Bit late, but I don't think I have any confidence they'll bring back anything remotely PVE in the future. Y'know those layoffs they did several weeks ago? While WoW wasn't as badly effected, Overwatch 2 was.. they laid off their PvE devs [and from what I've heard] both Activision and Microsoft didn't have any confidence in PvE being a success with the way it was.

So now, any hope of PvE for this game has gone up in flames... and it'd be more lucrative just to sell expensive collaboration skins [i.e. Cowboy Bebop skins].

That's really sad if true. Not surprising, but sad. But I have no investment in OW2, so I'm just kinda watching from the sidelines waiting for them to fix the PVP to be more varied and fun like it was during OW1.

[Woggmer]

That's really sad if true. Not surprising, but sad. But I have no investment in OW2, so I'm just kinda watching from the sidelines waiting for them to fix the PVP to be more varied and fun like it was during OW1.

(This is all based on an article from Kotaku)
Their initial plan for PvE was 3 Missions every 18 months.. but they kinda went too far ahead and worked on later missions without shipping out the three they had... in other words, they overcooked the PvE.

[Jester Joe]

That's really sad if true. Not surprising, but sad. But I have no investment in OW2, so I'm just kinda watching from the sidelines waiting for them to fix the PVP to be more varied and fun like it was during OW1.

I cannot think of a single time PvP was "varied" in overwatch 1 outside of maybe the launch before too many metas formed. Tank role alone was basically forced into matching each other.

[PenguinChan]

I cannot think of a single time PvP was "varied" in overwatch 1 outside of maybe the launch before too many metas formed. Tank role alone was basically forced into matching each other.

Varied as in, there were different ways to play that were starkly different. In high-ranked gameplay this was less true, but that's about the same as it is now and in almost any video game (sadly). There are different ways to play that have disadvantages or handicaps, but again - game balance. Personally speaking I feel like OW2 (was) trying too hard to homogenize everything to be viable, especially tanks. Naturally only having one, off-tank design and gameplay just didn't work anymore. It was already heavily changed due to OW1's role queue (I like role queue fwiw).

I just believe OW2 did a TF2 (before jungle inferno) and tried to push comp and 5v5 active gameplay too much at the sacrifice of hero identity and homogenization. A swing and a miss in my eyes.

[Big Thanks]

There is a new Overwatch competitor everyone is talking about
Some...Marvel...Netease...thing.

edit: Is called Marvel Rivals