Hey, everyone! Alec here, checking in as we wrap up this wild season. It’s been an absolute privilege watching you experience The Reign of Talon and pick up our newest Heroes. Whether you’ve just joined (or re-joined!) the Overwatch community or you’ve been here since day one, we can’t thank you enough for coming on this journey and believing in our vision for Overwatch.
Looking ahead to Season 2, the Overwatch team and I would like to use this space to give you an inside perspective of how we tackle pain points within the game. When we spot problems or have big dreams for features, we work on short-term and long-term goals to turn our visions into a viable reality. Here’s what that looks like for several ambitious undertakings we’re focused on in 2026.
Modernizing Hero Kits
Some of the parts on our ever-moving machine are sparkling and new, specially crafted to fit well into modern Overwatch. Other parts need some tuning to stay competitive and compelling.
Short-term
In Season 2, we’ll be integrating some Perks into Heroes’ base kits to help them keep up with our newer Overwatch (and Talon) recruits. It was important to us that this initial pass of Perk integration didn’t go too wide; we wanted to take what we felt were the best options for Heroes who needed a tune-up. To do that, we had a set of goals we kept in mind. Our picks didn’t need to hit every requirement, but fulfilling most of the parameters brought Perks into consideration.
- Does this Perk help an established ability become more functional without adding complication? Overwatch is already a fast-paced game and we wanted to integrate Perks that would add utility without friction, especially for long-term players used to certain abilities.
- Does it heighten or emphasize the Hero Fantasy? Some Perks can lean towards the chaotic side, but others seem to fit seamlessly into a Hero’s overall kit, history, and vibe. They just make sense.
- Does it add utility without too much bloat?Just because we technically have the space to add abilities in certain kits doesn’t mean we have to. If it takes up an extra button in the base kit—and demands a learning curve to integrate that ability into your play style—the Perk added needs to be meaningful.
- Can it give us more vectors for the Hero’s balance? Our team is always looking for more “levers” to adjust when a Hero needs balance changes. If the integration of a Perk can offer more opportunities to bump a Hero in the right direction, that was a huge bonus.
Mercy’s Flash Heal Perk checks a few of these boxes and will be added to her kit in Season 2. Flash Heal leans into her Hero Fantasy and makes Mercy more dynamic, offering an interesting in-combat decision that doesn’t overly bloat her kit. Next, we had Reaper's Dire Triggers. We felt the addition of a long-range volley into his base kit was a necessary upgrade that justified the use of another input. And the core concept of Pharah’s Drift Thrusters, which let her move during Barrage, will be integrated into her kit to offer utility without requiring the complete relearning of an ability. Check out all of our Perk integrations when Season 2 drops next week.
Not only did we look at the above goals from a balance perspective, but every Perk added into baseline kits got a quality pass from our Sound, VFX, and/or animation teams. They made sure these additions met the same quality standards we have for general Hero base kits.
VFX Comparison between Live Servers (left) and Season 2 Perk Update (right)
This process of integrating Perks is something we may do again in the future, but likely not on a regular basis. We’re not getting into the habit of adding Perks just to make them baseline in the future! But some Perks made sense, met our goals, and offered a way for Heroes with older kits to level up to where Overwatch is today.
Long-term
Both myself and other Team 4 members have hinted at this in interviews and on community streams, but we’re looking at multiple Heroes for reworks later in the year. An extremely early shortlist for us (that’s subject to change) includes Sombra, Lifeweaver, and Roadhog.
When we create kits and Heroes nowadays, we aim for simplicity and flexibility. We want player choice integrated into our Heroes so they can excel in different scenarios. Some Heroes we’re looking at have strongly defined, specific play styles; while that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, if changing their kits will improve overall game health, we’ll pursue it. We’re also eyeing Heroes whose kits we feel have stagnated in some way: they don’t feel as dynamic as their newer counterparts. As 2026 goes on (likely after Season 3) we’ll have more information to share on these reworks.
Upgrading Social Spaces
Even if you’re a perpetual solo queue warrior, you have to admit that the Overwatch experience is made more interesting by the people you play alongside and against. We build community, friendships, and important relationships between queues and on our favorite maps. Over the next year, we want to celebrate and elevate that social aspect.
Short-term
Longtime Overwatch players may remember the post-match voting cards we used to have. As fun as it was to earn a gold medal for spending the most time on the payload, other systems took priority over the past few years. But we felt something was missing with our current post-match flow. It didn’t offer space or time to breathe, nonetheless socialize—especially on console.
We’re so excited that a version of this system is returning in Season 2 with Post-Match Accolades. After a match, you’ll be taken to a fully-3D landing page to vote for an MVP and engage in (reasonable) banter.
(Developer build screenshot, UI and quality not final)
There’s a bonus experimental addition coming to Season 2: you’ll have the choice to join a lobby voice chat—yes, with the opposing team—during the Play of the Game reveal. This will be entirely optional and we encourage everyone to remember that voice chat is monitored for safety.
We want Overwatch to feel alive and there can sometimes be a deeper connection through voice than through text. Rather than just saying “gg” in chat, when you actually hear “good game” from someone who gave you a true challenge, it creates something stronger. Fun, lighthearted banter and genuine connection is, to us, the best way to celebrate a match.
Long-term
Throughout the rest of 2026, we’ll be iterating and discussing different ways to make our game more social. One concept we're particularly excited to explore is a competitive event with additional social components. We like the idea of limited-time events that encourage social interaction because it gives players a chance to meet new friends and teammates without permanently changing their experience of playing Overwatch. We’ll roll out this specific event more like a trial so we can respond quickly to some of its sharper social elements and keep it short to gauge community reception. If you don't enjoy a social event that lasts for a few days, it'll be easy to skip. But if systems that are designed to reward you for playing with your friends (or finding new ones to queue with) pique your interest, we think you’ll enjoy what we’re working on.
Overall, we’re passionate about working on the social side of things because our team considers this a critical part of Overwatch. Social systems can be hard to put value on since they don’t directly translate to balance changes or engagement spikes. But when we build Overwatch beats throughout the year, we like to say we’re creating "Reasons to Come Back and Reasons to Stay." If you're someone who checks out Overwatch every now and then, it should be a more feature-rich experience the next time you come back. New Heroes are great to create big moments, but the overall Overwatch experience in and outside of your matches needs to also improve between the times you come back to the game.
Elevating Our Systems
In both Quick Play and Competitive, the Map Voting screen offers the first opportunity for you to influence the trajectory of your upcoming match. It’s a powerful place to set yourself and your team up for success, so we’re looking at various ways to level up that system soon.
Short-term
One big change will be headed to your lobbies when Season 2 launches. When you play on a new or reworked map in Competitive mode, you’ll lose less competitive progress if you don’t take home a victory. You’ll gain the standard amount of progress if you do win, however.
Historically, new or improved maps are selected less often. One of the reasons for this is that these maps are an unknown quantity; it’s understandable that you’d rather hedge your Competitive bets on a map you know instead of one you’ve never tried. We’ve seen this pattern happen many times on our end. Push maps like Runasapi and Esperança weren’t very popular until the community learned them. Now, they elicit consistent positive feedback in community sentiment surveys and are voted on more often.
(Developer build screenshot, UI and quality not final)
There are even more map voting improvements coming with Season 2. We’ve all seen those screenshots where nine people in the lobby choose King’s Row and one lone outlier brings the match elsewhere. Now, if a map wins by a certain undeniable majority, we’ll make it the winner. We don’t want to entirely remove the joy of variety, but when most of the lobby wants something, we want to honor that.
Next up, we’ve all experienced a map lineup that doesn’t exactly speak to us. There will be a new “Random Map” button that you can select if none of the three maps provided tickle your fancy. There will also be icons to let you know if you’re playing Attack or Defense during the map voting phase. This isn’t a huge deal for Competitive modes, but if you’re in Quick Play, it can definitely affect which map you want to play.
Finally, there are some background changes with our map recency score. Maps that received votes during the map voting phase won’t be as buried as maps that received no votes. This should consistently offer maps you want to play on more often.
We want to maintain variety but also have the map voting process better reflect some of your in-game choices. Hope you enjoy these changes in Season 2!
Long-term
The next system we’re spending time improving is Hero Bans. We believe there is room to help you make more informed bans and eliminate some of the instances where it doesn't feel like the system is reflecting your choices.
In the current ban system, you share one Hero choice during the “prefer Hero” phase. While we don’t want to extend that phase, we do think we can expand on the information you give (and receive) during that phase. We’re looking at options for you to share your Hero preferences a bit more in hopes that you and your team can make better-informed ban decisions.
We understand there are times when the Hero Ban system doesn't feel like it works in your lobby. This can happen when a Hero that got a lot of votes on your side wasn't banned, either because it ran into the role-limit rule or another choice barely edged it out. We’re currently talking about what a fifth ban may look like, something we’re calling a Lobby Ban. This ban would potentially ignore the role-limit rule and consider votes from both teams to decide on a final ban.
Keep an eye out for more info as this amazing year goes on, gg!