Overwatch 1 And 2 Will Be Ultimately Merged Together

• Jeff Kaplan, the director of Overwatch, talks about his plans of merging the game in the near future to cater to the needs of the gaming community.

Overwatch 2 has got all fans of the game completely hyped ever since its announcement in the Blizzcon 2019. It feels like it is a sequel, but it definitely feels like an expansion. It is not a different game altogether. Overwatch 2 will be an added single-player mode as far as we know with certain extra elements. The gameplay shown at Blizzcon 2019 looks and feels like the existing game. Not so much has been revealed yet, so we have yet to see how effectively Blizzard manages to deliver the game.

Jeff Kaplan, the director of the game, recently talked about the long-term plan they have for the game when speaking with Kotaku. They plan to merge the two games somehow in the near future after the release.

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“There will be a point where the clients merge,” he said. “We think this is important, especially as a competitive experience. The whole idea is to avoid fragmenting the player base and giving anybody a competitive advantage. If we’re playing in the same competitive pool, you’d better not have a better framerate just because you’re on a different version of the engine.”

Both the games are built on the same engine. The idea of Overwatch 2 being an expansion is more fitting than the concept of it being a new game altogether. Kaplan said that Overwatch 2 is the main reason behind delayed and slow updates for Overwatch 1. So, it sort of implies the fact that Overwatch 2 is the major update to Overwatch 1.

The idea of merging also grows from the fact that Overwatch league or “OWL” is a major thing now. It has made its place in the esports world while being relatively new. The developers won’t want that harmony to be broken so soon by introducing a new game with new mechanics and other additions. OWL is still growing, and it needs to stay in its comfortable domain for at least some more time. Kaplan said that the priority is to ensure that players don’t end up feeling disheartened as Overwatch evolves.

Kaplan also talked about impactful and major updates coming to Overwatch 1 soon. No target date has been given yet. The thought behind Overwatch 2 merging with the already existing game is pretty neat. Let’s wait and see what plans Blizzard has for Overwatch.