overwatch Jeff Kaplan on Blizzard World and New Items

[Zadina 923]

Overwatch's Game Director hinted that the new map will be released soon and a lot of unrevealed skins will come along with it. Balance changes may follow after the Blizzard World patch.

Even though Blizzard World has been on the PTR for a while now, the map is still scheduled to be released in "early 2018". In a recent interview with Forbes, Jeff Kaplan explained all the detail that has gone into this map, making it sound like Blizzard World is the most complicated map the Overwatch team has designed so far.

In a series of forums posts yesterday, Kaplan reassured the community that Blizzard World will be released on live servers really soon, perhaps even before the end of this month. Jeff also talked about some characteristic issues they had to fix in the map.

Jeff Kaplan

When are they releasing? And will stored up loot boxes have chances of unlocking the new skins? Also that Doomfist skin is beautiful, I wants its!

Blizzard World and the new loot box items release early this year. Between you and me, I am hoping before the end of the month. But "stuff" can happen.

Loot boxes roll their items the moment you acquire them -- meaning if you hold on to loot boxes, they will not have new items or any other changes to that system.

Glad you like the Doomfist skin. The artists will be happy. (source)

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The map is very close. We had to fix a few things like the fact that Torb's turret would get destroyed if you built it on the "Flight to Duskwood" ride. There is also a lot of invisible collision that goes into all maps that prevents players from getting into weird or stuck places and also just makes things like Lucio wall ride or Genji/Hanzo wall climb work better. We also had to do a ton of optimization on Blizz World -- it's the map that has the most stuff in it by far. Getting it to run fast is super important to us. (source)

Blizzard World patch will bring along new Blizzard-related skins, highlight intros, emotes etc., but it will also contain a lot of unrevealed new skins and other stuff. The plan is for every hero to receive something.

Jeff Kaplan

Are there any skins we haven't seen yet :).

Yes. (source)

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Yes. Most of the new stuff is NOT Blizzard World related, as a matter of fact. Also, the new stuff is the whole range of items -- not just skins... so highlight intros, emotes, sprays etc.

If you guys really dig the Blizz stuff, then we'll make more of that in the future... we love doing it. (source)

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There's stuff for all heroes but not all of it is the same tier. Some will get legendary stuff, some epic etc... A lot of that was based on who has gotten stuff recently and who hasn't and how many items those heroes had in those categories. (source)

Lastly, as mentioned before, Blizzard World and the new items will come out together within the next few weeks, given that they are already in console certification. It is probable that a balance patch will follow soon after the Blizzard World patch. Kaplan mentioned that the team was experimenting with Hanzo, but he didn't want to share any more detail.

Jeff Kaplan

The map and the loot box items will come out together. My guess (and this is not a promise... just trying to be real here) is that any balance changes will drop shortly after. The map/items are already in console certification but the balance changes have not yet been submitted as we are still evaluating them. (source)

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We were experimenting with Hanzo today but any changes there are a ways off... we still need to be happy with what we're trying before we go to PTR or discuss things outside of the team. (source)

[Yridaa 490]

1 hour ago, Zadina said:

If you guys really dig the Blizz stuff, then we'll make more of that in the future... we love doing it.

That's a tough one. On one hand it is amazing to get into a "theme park" that has towering (pun intended) references to other Blizzard games. On the other hand, it would feel less unique if there were a lot of maps that has similar references to Blizzard games. On the third hand - for the mutants between us - you also carefully have to balance Overwatch's own identity and I can only salute more Overwatch lore and content (I.e. Eichenwalde's story and history)

 

I mean, we already have HotS where all games come together. Having a Mercy in a Starcraft 2 medic suit and 76 in a Marine skin, while D.Va plays around in her Deathwing mech would be a bit overboard. I'd be totally fine with they went "overboard" with it for a temporary event, such as a Diablo, Warcraft or Starcraft anniversary event. But it'd be more realistic if those skins would be temporary (and not lootbox related i.e. unlock all event skins during the anniversary event for everyone and shut it down afterwards)

 

 

But hey, that's just my two cents.