Game director Aaron Keller is explaining the changes to Overwatch 2 Stadium after players shared their concerns about the new mode.
Keller wrote in a new Overwatch 2 blog post I’m working on a longer Director’s Take about Stadium’s past present and future along with a roadmap for the mode. But for now I want to quickly go over what’s happened this week. There have been many discussions about Stadium and I want to make sure everyone knows about the updates changes and the current progress.
Blizzard sees four main problems with Stadium: no crossplay too many players leaving poor performance on older systems and some heroes and builds are frustrating. The new multiplayer mode has a lot of work to do but Keller and his team are already aware of the issues.
Keller hopes crossplay will come to Stadium in Season 17. He says there are two options: either add an unranked version of Stadium or turn on crossplay in the current ranked version. The decision will depend on how popular the game mode is. If a lot of players are enjoying it they will be confident that both unranked and ranked modes will have enough players for good matchmaking and wait times.
Keller explains that even though players leave mid-game in Stadium. it is not happening more than in Ranked. The leaver rate in Stadium is 7% and a bug has been fixed so penalties for quitting now apply correctly to all players. Keller also mentions that Blizzard understands it might feel like more players are leaving Stadium even if that’s not true and they are investigating the issue.
As for Stadium’s overall performance Keller says Blizzard is looking to improve Stadium’s performance overall. If you are using older hardware you might have noticed lower framerates. Stadium is a demanding game mode because of all the extra abilities and powers players can equip and it is hitting older systems harder.
Because of this we decided to limit older hardware to 30fps in this mode. This will prevent the frame rate from jumping around but it might feel worse for some players. We are adding technology to turn this off automatically and plan to test it in the next few weeks.
Blizzard is making changes to hero balancing and items. They are nerfing some items that are causing frustration and buffing others that aren't used as much. All Overwatch 2 characters in Stadium are affected but the new patch focuses on Cassidy D.Va and Zarya. Blizzard is also analyzing data on hero bans perks and how players are reacting to the new hero Freja. Keller ended the article by saying Blizzard will discuss these updates soon.
Season 16 is an important time for Overwatch 2 with big changes happening. Blizzard has added hero bans which have been in Marvel Rivals since the start. The new Stadium map is a huge change that could be good for the games future. 2025 is a key year for Overwatch 2. so hopefully Blizzard can keep things going strong.
0 Comments