Over the last week, Blizzard announced a flurry of updates to Overwatch 2 including MOBA-like perks and the return of loot boxes. But perhaps the biggest reveal was that an entirely new mode would be coming to the game in April called Stadium.
It’s a third-person, round-based spin on the usual hero shooter format with MOBA elements like an item store, in-game currency, and upgrades. It marks Blizzard’s first step into a completely uncharted genre that Valve only recently set the groundwork for with Deadlock.
In fact, Deadlock isn’t even ‘out’ yet. It’s still in the invite-only alpha stage, and despite a string of balance updates to try and keep its fledgling community of player testers happy, Valve had to begin spacing out updates so that it could continue development unabated. It’s a demanding tightrope to walk, ensuring that the hero shooter gameplay gels with the MOBA balancing — throwing Overwatch parts into this already busy arena isn’t going to be easy.
Stadium will need separate balancing from the main mode to feel fair and consistent with its new upgrade paths and abilities. Deadlock struggled and that’s with an entire game dedicated to doing just that. Blizzard will have to juggle it with the main mode, while new heroes (like the two just announced) will regularly uproot the meta every other season. Players are already getting tired of the base game and its balancing issues, so Stadium might just be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
What Makes Stadium Different From PvE?
When PvE was scrapped in 2023, it was a hugely controversial move. PvE was the selling point of Overwatch 2, the whole reason that it was rebranded as a sequel rather than another major update. The backlash was fierce, but it became clear as the dust settled that Blizzard was in over its head.
Game director Aaron Keller explained that the team was “trying to do too many things at once and […] lost focus.” He described the mode as an “exciting but gargantuan vision” that was “continuously pulling resources away from the live game”.
Stadium already sounds like an incredibly ambitious idea on par with PvE. It has individual hero stats, unique currency, a fleshed-out item store, and even entirely new upgrade paths for each character. Every update to Overwatch 2 must now intimately consider how it will affect Stadium, and every new hero will demand new upgrades be implemented to the mode. If PvE was too much of a cross to bear for Blizzard, what makes Stadium any different?
The new level-based perks in the main mode are yet another feature Blizzard will have to keep balanced.
The cynic in me says that Blizzard needs an edge because of Marvel Rivals. When PvE was scrapped, it didn’t really matter. Sure, people would get mad and there’d be backlash, but where would they go? There was no true alternative to Overwatch. But with Rivals’ immense popularity (of which the writing has been on the walls since its beta last year), Blizzard now has to make a concerted effort to keep its players invested, or else they’ll move onto greener pastures. I doubt Rivals will ever ‘kill’ the game — even PUBG, which has been eclipsed by Fortnite, is still one of the most popular games on Steam — but quiet success isn’t Blizzard’s mantra. It wants to be the king of the hill.
Stadium won’t put it there. People left Overwatch for Marvel Rivals because they wanted the Overwatch in their heads, the rose-tinted ‘golden years’ that even the release of Classic couldn’t conjure back up. Marvel Rivals brought that back because it’s actually new, not an imitation. The cracks will show eventually, they always do for live-service games, but right now we’re all happily in that honeymoon phase.
The destructible environments, more agile movement, and less shield-spamming certainly help too.
Overwatch 2 just needs to focus on its main mode and wait out the hype. But Stadium will only stretch Blizzard thin and hasten the community’s burnout. If it was confident enough to cancel PvE to avoid just that, knowing full well the backlash it would bring, it looks like things are getting pretty desperate as this former titan of the industry claws to stay relevant.
- Released
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October 4, 2022
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