Overwatch Updates Planned Till Early 2017, New Maps and Hero Info Coming in Summer

Details about McCree and D.Va changes also revealed.

During his chat with Eurogamer, Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan talked about Competitive Play and the changes that would be coming to the mode. Along with specifying that it was possible to rank up and down during this mode (as opposed to the closed beta where no amount of losses could make you lose rank), Kaplan also talked about future plans with Overwatch.

As it turns out, there will be details on new maps and heroes sometime later in the Summer. And don’t worry – each hero will only be released one at a time since Blizzard remembers how annoyed closed beta players were when three new heroes joined the fray at once. Not only that but there are already updates planned until early 2017 to ensure a steady amount of new content.

That being said, based on community feedback, Kaplan and his team may change the rate at which new content is released. One of the newest changes will be to Play of the Game, adding more cinematic camera angles to make it all the cooler. The date of its roll-out hasn’t been confirmed.

It’s not confirmed whether Sombra is the first new hero coming but she’s definitely real. In fact, players haven’t found all the hints about her just yet according to Kaplan.

For players concerned about the 20 Hz tick rate for matches, Kaplan also revealed that while the server runs at 60 Hz, the client will need to be updated for the same – which can be done if more players test it in custom games mode. However, if you’re facing issues being killed around corners, it’s more of a latency problem than the tick rate.

As for changes to heroes, McCree’s Fan the Hammer attack is being nerfed so it can definitely kill squishier heroes and not kill tanks. Medium health heroes can maybe be killed with it. D.Va will either be receiving a larger range for her damage (mitigating some of the drop-off she experiences now) or a buff to her survivability. Both options are being tested but D.Va will be changed later than McCree.

What are your thoughts on all the changes coming to Overwatch, especially with new heroes and maps? Let us know in the comments below.

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