Following the reveal of Overwatch Classic, a new event in Overwatch 2 that takes the game back to its 2016 launch state, Blizzard has teased that they want to revisit more popular, or unpopular, metas in the future.
Following in the footsteps of Fortnite Season OG, Overwatch Classic is a limited-time mode where players can relieve the launch version of the game. This includes a return to the 6v6 format, the scrapping of role and Hero limits, and abilities that are nowhere near as balanced as they are eight years later.
Classic is designed to give both series veterans and newer players a glimpse into what OW was like in its launch state, but fans will already be wondering if this is a one-and-done event. Luckily, in a group media call attended by Dexerto, Lead Gameplay Designer, Alec Dawson, hinted that there could be a lot more to come, providing players are invested in the mode.
“We’ve already talked about what this could be as a recurring thing,” he said. “Can we jump to different snapshots in time of the game? I think Overwatch has a lot of history and a lot of different metas players might want to return to.”
“This is a snapshot of when the game first came out,” he continued. “We want to see how much players resonate with that. Is it something they want to actively keep playing? Is it something that is actually just a whiff of nostalgia for them? That’s something we’re going to be actively looking at to see what this could mean for us long term. [We’ll] see what our plans are then.”
There have been plenty of Overwatch metas over the years, from the Ana and Genji ‘Nanoblade’ era to the season where the double sniper combo of Widowmaker and Hanzo was king. Alec Dawson revealed that the team have already discussed which could return in a future version of Classic.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
“It’s something we’ve obviously brainstormed, we have few in mind that might be very exciting or even terrifying for players to go back to,” he explained, before Game Director, Aaron Keller, went on to mention that they want to make “large jumps in time” with each iteration.
Although no concrete details were revealed about which era of Overwatch we’ll be revisiting next, Keller did tease a possible return of the ‘Moth’ meta from 2017, where Mercy was able to revive all of her fallen teammates using her Ultimate.
He said: “If we were to do another one after this, maybe we’d be looking at a meta where Mercy was really dominant. That happened about a year after launch. I don’t think we’re ready to talk about exactly what those look like, although that was a pretty big clue.”
The first Overwatch Classic runs until December 2, but we’ll have to wait and see if Blizzard decade to bring the event back in Season 14 or beyond.
