Overwatch Dev Teases “Absolutely Crazy Stuff” for New Modes, New Maps Hinted in Datamining

Blizzard Entertainment has delivered Competitive Play and a new hero, Ana, in Overwatch but the studio is investigating even more content for the game in the future.

Speaking to Kotaku, game director Jeff Kaplan spoke about new modes and noted that, “They’ve always been a priority. We have those in the pipe. We have a really great tool set so we’re able to prototype new game modes not super easily, but fairly quickly.

“The tricky part for us is we’ve always talked about the ultimate priority in Overwatch is the heroes. The game is about the heroes, and we never want a game mode to overshadow the heroes. As soon as somebody starts pitching a game mode where Tracer can’t blink anymore or she’s not allowed to use her recall, that’s where we step away from it and we’re like, “You know, we need the game mode that makes Tracer want to blink and use recall and that everybody thinks that’s cool and not a balance problem and broken.”

“The other thing that we like because we’re a 6v6 game, is we like game modes where it focuses the team to work together. We don’t like game modes that come up where it suddenly becomes a lone wolf game and you’re off running by yourself and you don’t really care what you’re team is doing. We have a lot of ideas. I think we have some absolutely crazy stuff that’s going to blow people’s minds coming out sooner than people realize. That’s, I think, going to catch people totally out of left field like, ‘Wow, I wasn’t expecting that from Overwatch.’

“I think that will just be fun. That’s just for pure fun sake with a wink and a smile. It’s not, ‘Hey, this is the new direction of the game.’ It’s more of like, ‘Look, we can have fun with this game in new and different ways,’ so that’s my teaser.”

Meanwhile, a Reddit user spent time datamining files on the PTR and revealed what could be settings for some new maps in the future. These include a German castle, a map in Korea, a map underwater, a Moon map and an ordinance bay. What are you hoping to see in Overwatch in terms of new content? Let us know in the comments.