Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan shared a massive update on the game’s future recently. Along with confirming that content updates had been planned for well into 2017 and the lion’s share of the work is currently on getting Competitive Play ready, Kaplan also discussed the plan for new heroes and maps.
He noted that the development team isn’t going to “set expectations and then have something come up” and then “backing out on a promise never really made” about new heroes. That being said, they’re being “worked on daily” along with maps. One map has actually gone through production and been play-tested enough for Blizzard to feel “confident in it” and it’s currently being jazzed up by the art department.
“We have a few other maps that are in prototype and playtest phases right now. Some of them will become real maps and some of them will be totally scrapped, so I can’t really commit on those. For example, we tested a map yesterday that was amazing yet a total disaster at the same time.
“So maps and heroes are being worked on daily. I wish I had dates, but whatever date I gave would change and then you’d all be mad at me. The good news is, like we’ve said before, for Overwatch, we won’t be charging for those maps or heroes. Those will just be live updates that will come in a patch for free.”
The overall update is quite extensive about other features that are planned like a server browser of sorts for custom games and a random emote/voice line option so it’s well worth checking out.