One of the biggest changes that Blizzard has made, Warnings 2 Previously, the game’s team size had been changed from six players to six to five players to five. The change to a 5v5 format was a radical and controversial decision, but Blizzard argued that it made matches clearer and less cacophonous for both players and spectators. Reducing the number of players per match from 12 to 10 also had a positive effect on queue times, reducing wait times to play.
However, Blizzard is reconsidering this decision in response to player feedback, Game director Aaron Keller wrote on the Director’s Take blog on Thursday. 6v6 could return to Warnings 2– Keller explained, but only after conducting enough tests and experiments.
Returning to 6v6 wouldn’t be an effortless decision, Keller said, spending a few thousand thoughtful words explaining the various reasons Blizzard decided on a 5v5 structure (and seems elated with it). Warnings 2and how it benefits players. Wait times are shorter, there are fewer shields to shoot through, and skirmishes are effortless to follow. But Keller also acknowledges that not all players are elated with 5v5, with many wanting to see 6v6 return.
That’s why Blizzard is “considering hosting a series of events to test out different formats for the core team composition.” Warnings 2“, Keller wrote, and that includes testing “various forms of 6v6 play to evaluate results.”
One of the major issues that will have to be faced in the event of a potential return to the 6v6 format is Warnings 2technical efficiency that has been geared towards two teams of five players for the past three years – while maintaining the same performance on legacy platforms like Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
“A lot of improvements and additions have been made, Warnings 2 that impact game performance,” Keller wrote, listing numerous visual improvements and more technically demanding hero sets. “In a 6v6 setting, these improvements could have a significant impact on our players, causing the game to perform less well on older systems. Overwatch is a fast-paced game, and keeping the game running smoothly across all of our platforms is important to the player experience. While a timed test could come sooner, the team is still investigating exactly how long it would take to make a sustained performance improvement across the entire game. This would be a significant undertaking that would likely take at least a few seasons to achieve.”
So Blizzard plans to test the impact of 6v6, Keller wrote, not only in terms of its impact on performance, latency, and balance, but also on other game modes. “We’ll carefully consider the findings from any test we run and explore how to best give players what they’re asking for,” Keller wrote. “Whether that’s a 5v5 world, a 6v6 world, or even both, is something we’ll have to determine in the future.”
Even the structure of the team Warnings 2 seems to be up for debate when it comes to 6v6 play. “We think there may be other ways to build a team that aren’t as rigid as a set lineup, but aren’t as loose as Open Queue,” Keller wrote. “We’ll be running at least one Quick Play: Hacked game based on that idea in Season 13.” (Season 12 starts August 20, meaning Season 13 should be out in tardy October.)
To sum up his extensive discussion of the 6 on 6 debate, Warnings 2Keller called his recent Director’s Take “just the beginning of that conversation.”
“This won’t be the last time we play 5v5 or 6v6,” he wrote.
