Overwatch Mei freezing poor ol' Roadhog

[Update]: The replay system has now arrived, and it's already pretty good!

Despite being fairly young, as far as modern video games are concerned anyway, Overwatch has already managed to garner quite the competitive scene. But in order to really push things to the next level there is a definitive need for replays and a better spectator system, all in order to slowly bridge the gap between the actual pros and the general playerbase.

We've known for a while now that the spectator mode is undergoing heavy improvements, but according to a recent post by Jeff Kaplan it appears that the team is also actively working on enabling both replays and highlight sharing/saving/exporting. Here's the full quote straight from the Overwatch Game Director:

Community: "In game system that works like Sports games (Maddens,NBA,NHL,The Show) capable of saving w/ movable camera and slow, rewind and all. I want to rewatch games from every possible angle not just my own point of view repeatedly."

Kaplan: "This is a feature we very much want as well. It's a very challenging and large feature from a development standpoint. We've done a lot of the groundwork to help make this happen. We're really hoping to get it in someday, work is being done, but it's not on the immediate horizon."

Community: "In game highlight exporting would be excellent, I use Shadowplay currently when anything worth giving a damn about happens. It works just fine for me right now though."

Kaplan: "Saving and/or exporting highlights is also on our list. We consider this a completely different feature from the Replay request above. This one is also actively being worked on. Highlight sharing/saving/exporting (whatever exact form it takes) will come before Replays."

As you can see from Kaplan's replies these are fairly complex systems that will require a lot effort in order to actually implement, but the good news is that they are actively working on them. And while the replays might not be arriving any time soon, at we'll all be able to enjoy even more over-the-top Plays of the Game once the highlight sharing/saving/exporting system finally appears.

And if you're wondering what exactly the developers are spending their time with, the answer would be the next big patch. If you're interested in all of the details I would recommend you head over here, but long story short, they will soon be implementing a new King of the Hill map called Oasis, as well as Symmetra's big rework. As for the artists, they've probably spent the past few months creating the various cosmetics (such as Santa Torbjorn!) for the holiday event that starts on December 13. All in all, things seem to be quite busy over at Blizzard, and conversely, quite positive for the future of Overwatch!

Overwatch's upcoming Santa Torbjorn skin