It really does seem like the Overwatch team is trying to go for some sort of a 'community favorite' award at this point. It has been a mere month since the previous Developer Update, and already we have Overwatch's Game Director Jeff Kaplan behind the camera discussing the team's current and future plans! If only the rest of the Blizzard teams could be this communicative...
But moaning aside, if you're interested in learning more about the direction Overwatch will take in 2017, you'll find the most recent Developer Update down below. And for those of you that don't have time to watch the whole video, I'll also include my brief summary. Have a look:
• Oasis, the new King of the Hill map, is set to arrive in early 2017. If you would like to give it a try, its currently on the PTR.
• Ana is slightly overpowered and will be balanced down in the future. Given the currently ongoing 4-tank meta I would expect the grenade heal boost to be the first on the chopping block.
• The team is waiting for people to master Sombra before making any significant changes. If she still ends up being weak, don't worry, they have a couple of fixes planned.
• There will be a whole bunch of new seasonal events, not all of which are linked to actual holidays. However, the next event will most likely be linked to the Chinese New Year given that they have previously announced an a-Mei-zing skin for early 2017.
• You will soon be able to customize the communication wheel with up to 4 emotes, 4 voice lines, and even sprays! As you might expect, this is a massive buff to D.Va given that you will be able to spam "WINKY FACE", "I AM NUMBER ONE", and "IS THIS EASY MODE", all at the same time. Its a real gamechanger!
• The devs are working on ways to encourage parties to join team voice chat.
• There are numerous heroes in the development pipline, one of which is currently on the art stage. Chances are one of these heroes will be Doomfist given that Blizzard recently invited Terry Crews to their HQ.
• New maps and game modes are planned, both for the arcade and competitive mode.
• The spectator mode is receiving some much needed updates, though the specific changes aren't known just yet.
• The team will be adding a server browser for custom games! And best of all, they will be adding even more ways to find cool and unique game modes and maps.
As you can see, these are some pretty damn good additions, and this is just the stuff the team has planned right now! And perhaps most importantly for the competitive scene, they have finally acknowledged the fact that Ana is currently overpowered and the driving force behind of the most boring metas Overwatch has ever seen. So if you ask me, the future for Overwatch is looking brighter than Santa Torbjorn's nose!
Oh, and if you haven't seen the recently posted holiday comic, head over here. Without spoiling too much, its about the various Overwatch characters and how they have decided to spend this holiday season. Enjoy!