Blizzard Entertainment’s Overwatch hasn’t added a ton of new characters since the game launched. Granted, those that have been added, namely Sombra, Ana and Orisa, are significant and enjoyed by the community. But compared to Epic Games’ Paragon which introduces a new character every three weeks or Hi-Rez Studios’ Paragon which will have 20-plus heroes this year alone, it may not seem like much.
That’s intentional as per director Jeff Kaplan when speaking to PC Gamer. He noted that new heroes would have to fit in with “the existing cast” and not subtract value from any of them. Blizzard also didn’t want to “homogenize heroes by repeating abilities or variants of the same ability.”
“We still have some amazing ideas for heroes that would have unique gameplay and backstories that would fit well within our game. but ultimately, when it comes to heroes, we prefer quality over quantity.”
Currently the mandate is three to four heroes per ear and Kaplan doesn’t want the rate of hero development to be “any faster than that.” Principal director Geoff Goodman further said that the team had “barely scratched the surface” when it came to hero ideas and that there was “giant list of cool ideas to try out.”
“Pharah was one of our first heroes, but I remember when we implemented her I was immediately thinking of a hero that flies 100% of the time and never needs to touch the ground — that might be interesting to try some day.
“We’ve had a few experiments where we had abilities or guns that could pierce walls…what if a hero could just blast a hole through a wall? Or somehow create objects for players to run on or stand on? The possibilities are endless,” says Goodman.
Blasting holes through walls sounds a lot like Doomfist. What say, Blizzard? Regardless what are your thoughts on Blizzard’s rate of adding new heroes in Overwatch? Let us know in the comments.
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