Overwatch 2 could have sat comfortably on your dashboard without much change, but NetEase’s Marvel Rivals had other plans. The similarities between the two shooters aren’t exactly secretive, but NetEase’s steadfast support since launch continues to win over new players. Addressing the pressure Marvel Rivals has brought to the table, game director Aaron Keller is eager to push Overwatch 2’s boundaries going forward.
In a recent interview with GamesRadar, Keller is keenly aware of the rivalry that NetEase’s shooter poses on Overwatch 2’s tried and tested formula. Noting that there is pressure on the Overwatch 2 team “internally” to “make the best game possible,” Keller expresses that “when you get enough hours in the game, it almost feels like you can be going through the motions sometimes. What we want to be able to do is to inject a bit of freshness into the game, but not just for variety’s sake. We want to increase the depth of play.”
Marvel Rivals launched in December last year and shows no signs of slowing down when it comes to prompt updates, new characters, and shifting the meta. There are currently 35 characters in the hit action game, with more on the horizon to fulfill NetEase’s promise of fresh additions every six weeks, according to a Metro interview with game director Guangyun Chen. Keller says that the Overwatch 2 team is treading on new ground “where there’s another game that’s so similar to the one that we’ve created […] there’s actually something kind of exciting about this.”
Keller is happy to see Marvel Rivals thrive with “a different direction” to Overwatch 2 but iterates that it’s “a forcing function to our team, this is no longer about playing it safe. And I really think that seasons 15 and 16 are us not playing it safe.”
Although Keller’s intentions to elevate Overwatch 2 are what players want to hear, the recent announcement of reintroducing loot boxes seems like Blizzard Entertainment is regressing more than anything. Before launch, Blizzard touted Overwatch 2 as a major overhaul to the FPS game, but it turned out quite the opposite.
Responding to that feedback, Keller adds that players “thought that the game was going to be something that it didn’t end up being. I get the criticism, but from the team’s point of view, the only thing that we can do about that now is to make the best version of this game that we can.”
Elsewhere, with questionable Marvel Rival Steam Deck functionality hindering on-the-go matches, all eyes are on a potential Nintendo Switch 2 port. While NetEase was quick to dismiss the notion of a Marvel Rivals mobile iteration to me at Gamescom last year, it seems like a Marvel Rivals Switch 2 version could be in the works.
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