Overwatch 2 Developers Make Bold Changes to the Upcoming Roadmap
In a weekly recall blog, Overwatch 2 Stadium developers released updates to the upcoming seasonal roadmap. The changes involve the inclusion of heroes into Stadium, as well as a shake-up of when certain additions are introduced to the game mode. Either through feedback or wanting more time to work on heroes or aspects, changes have been made to the original Overwatch 2 roadmap.
Overwatch 2 Heroes Introduction
Originally, Sojourn was set to join Winston and Brigitte in Stadium for Season 18, but this plan has changed. The development team wants more time to work with Sojourn to get her ready for Stadium. Instead, Pharah is joining the lineup to bring a difference in gameplay. Sojourn will join the team in Season 19. Wuyang, the next Overwatch 2 hero, was joining Stadium in the Season 18 Midseason patch, but the British Speedster, Tracer, replaces them. Wuyang’s Stadium release is not confirmed, but it will be at a later date.
Feature Shifts
Along with Hero changes, the Stadium team is shifting the release of various features to Stadium. Below is the list of changes to the original roadmap:
- Unranked, Backfill, and Crossplay shifted to Season 18 instead of 17
- Stadium Trials shifted to Season 19 instead of 18
- Competitive Drafts (change hero picking) shifted to Season 18 instead of 19
Season 17 Additions
As we have discussed in prior articles, Stadium is getting the Stadium Forge and Custom Game Features. Players will have the opportunity to create, share, use, and edit builds with the Stadium Forge feature. Custom games allow players to play with and against their friends in one lobby. In Season 18, custom games will get the ability to add bots to their games for additional practice methods. Other changes coming to Stadium in Season 17 are:
- Esperança and Samoa as new maps
- Improved Aim Down Sights function on heroes
- Competitive Drives are added in the latter half of Season 17
