Hi everyone! We've loved hearing your enthusiasm for Stadium and most of all, we've loved watching you all play it. There’s already been so much creativity with builds. Not that we were surprised by that—we knew you wouldn’t disappoint!
Before I get into current changes and future developments, I'd like to give a little history of Stadium in hopes that it will give you some context as to where it’s headed. Plus, I like the title "Past, Present, and Future”!
Past
Stadium emerged as an idea before Overwatch 2 launched. In fact, before it was presented to the team, one of my kids created the first pitch document with a sample level and presented it to me! Stadium has come a long way since then, but I always think of my son when playing.
Early versions looked a little different from the mode you’re playing today. Stadium was initially focused on providing as much variety as possible. It was set up as an eight-team tournament. Each round, players picked from random upgrades to use in combat phases of Team Deathmatch or versus AI, losing health if they lost the round. But it was difficult to create a coherent strategy or builds to counter opponents when the decisions were made through random selection.
This change into the format you see today reflects a shift in our thinking: we still want there to be variety from match to match in Stadium, but variety is no longer the highest priority. We want you to feel balanced and competitive, while making epic builds through strategic choices based on the performance and Hero compositions of everyone in the match.
Present
Speaking of keeping things balanced and competitive, the team is already planning tweaks based on the feedback and data we’ve received since launch.
While we often see a big spike in play time shortly after a sparkly new event launches, play time in Stadium has been a bit stickier. In its first week, roughly 50% of all play hours in Overwatch 2 were devoted to Stadium!
When it comes to builds and Hero balance, we’ll be collecting data over the next few weeks to see what changes need to be made for the midseason balance patch, if not earlier.
There are many gears turning behind the scenes when it comes to Stadium. The development team answered some of your burning questions in a Reddit AMA earlier this week and we’ll be sharing more insights and Stadium data in a special Director’s Take next week!
Future
If you like playing Stadium, you'll be happy to know that we have a lot of big plans for it. There will be seasonal updates to Stadium which will include the release of new Heroes, maps, game modes, systems and features, as well as the usual care we put into other modes of Overwatch.
What’s coming to Stadium over the next two seasons? A lot!
The team just put out an extensive roadmap for Stadium that shows more of our future plans for the mode.
Heroes: Our newest addition to the Overwatch roster will also be the first new Hero added Freja is headed to Stadium and she'll arrive with the Season 16 midseason patch. But she's not the only Hero on the way! We'll have new Heroes added every Season, since we think adding new heroes is critically important for Stadium. Each time we've released a new addition internally, they’ve totally shifted the meta and the way we thought about putting together a build.
Game Modes: We’re planning on releasing a new game mode within Stadium named Payload Race and two brand-new maps will launch with it. On top of that, we’ll be integrating a new mechanic that we’ve been calling “Quests” internally. At the start of each match, players will select from a random set of quests that will dole out rewards once objectives are completed.
Systems: While we're really excited for new content in Stadium, we think systems that influence the way you put a build together can have an even greater impact. In Season 17, we’ll be releasing a build importer and exporter. This will not only allow players to put together builds outside of a Stadium match and then select them inside a match, it will also allow players to select from community builds as well.
You’ve also made your voices heard on a topic that’s very important to all of us: Cross-Play! Since Stadium has a competitive system, it follows the rules of our core competitive mode, which doesn’t allow PC and Console players to group. Since this is the only way to play the mode, we agree, and we’d like to do something about it. We’re currently investigating what it would take to make an unranked version of the mode. This would allow groups of friends to play together and would give us the ability to make other changes as well, possibly introducing a best-of-5 format to the mode.
Before signing off, I'd like to reiterate the team’s commitment to the other core modes of Overwatch. We’re still pouring as much time, energy and passion into these as we always have. Stadium isn't competing for those resources: it’s giving us more opportunities to deliver Overwatch in a new, exciting way.
We can't wait for you to see what's coming there, especially Season 18. It's going to be a banger! Have fun with Stadium and, as always, let’s make a great game.