Hi, everyone! Anniversaries are special: they’re not only a celebration of the past, but they’re a promise of the future. Tomorrow is Overwatch 2’s third anniversary and it feels surreal that this version of Overwatch has been running so long.
This moment feels like an inflection point for Overwatch. So much has happened over the past three years and every change has brought our game closer to its highest potential. Dion, Alec, and I sat down this past week to reflect on how we got here and where we’re headed next.
Aaron: The process of creating the original Overwatch felt a bit like magic; everything came together almost too easily. The art, engineering, design, production, and audio teams clicked and shared a strong vision of what that game could become. It’s an experience I’ll never forget and will always treasure.
But as work progressed on Overwatch 2, some of that magic seemed to evaporate. If you’re familiar with the history of the sequel’s production, you’ll also remember that the vision for what it was supposed to be changed over time. That sense of working together in lockstep with the team retreated and it was up to us to realign and redefine what this game was supposed to be.
Dion: When we set out to build the sequel, our vision was not only to evolve the world of Overwatch, but to deepen its emotional impact and make every map, Hero, and visual detail feel even more alive and meaningful.
Aaron: We created a new strategy for the game, one that doubled down on the competitive PvP experience. We prioritized the competitive nature of the game and started marching in that direction with the help of new talent and team members who had big ideas, like our assistant game director Alec Dawson.
Alec: My journey on Team 4 is a bit different than the origin stories of these two titans. I started at Blizzard on Hearthstone, creating expansions through Voyage to the Sunken City. It was an amazing experience, but I eventually got the urge to try something a little different. I joined a smaller project that sadly didn’t make it and ended up without somewhere steady to land. That was a scary moment for me, but I started looking for a new home. I’d always loved Overwatch and had been playing since launch. I even made a habit of going to Overwatch League matches with coworkers and friends (I own a custom Gladiators Kigurumi. Shields Up! Sorry, Scott).
When I knocked on the door and Overwatch ushered me inside warmly in the Summer of 2022, I couldn't have been happier—I couldn't have felt more at home. We spent a while finding our rhythm and footing leading up to launch, which continued after October 2022 since there were new leads (myself included) in key places on the team, but it was time well spent. Our team developed trust while Overwatch 2 found its own identity.
As time went on and we found ourselves improving on many fronts, it gave us the ability to back up a bit and think more structurally around how we plan an Overwatch year. How could we plan for more impactful seasons and surprise players? We needed something more.
Aaron: And you had something in mind!
Alec: Pitching Perks shortly after Season 9 was one of the more challenging things that I've worked on throughout my career. On paper, it all made sense. Add more vectors to the game so we can have more options for seasonal updates? Awesome! Giving players a way to alter their Hero slightly during a match and adapt without Hero switching? Great! And being able to surprise Overwatch players with a big gameplay shift? Let's go for it.
That said, some gameplay loops are so entrenched that they can approach an almost “sacred” status. There’s always a lingering fear that shaking them up or adding unnecessary fluff can detract from what makes those game experiences special. To me, and many others on the team, Overwatch's gameplay loop was in that state. We revered it.
Aaron: Over time, those risks began to pay off—our community noticed the changes and improvements we were making, so we gradually started making those bigger and bolder. Adding Perks in Season 15 and Stadium in Season 16 truly set us on an exciting path.
You shared the sentiment that Overwatch was “so back” and as a team, we felt that way too. We were working towards a shared vision of the game again. For the first time in a long while, it felt like the original magic the team experienced in its formative years was back!
Dion: The journey of Overwatch 2 has been challenging and transformative, both for the game and for me personally. Each year brought its own lessons—about leadership, about listening, and about embracing change. I learned the importance of balancing consistency in our visual identity with the need to innovate and surprise. Navigating the evolution of beloved heroes like Winston and Tracer and introducing unfamiliar faces like Ramattra, Kiriko, Mauga, Freja, and Wuyang to our roster challenged us to honor the legacy of Overwatch while charting fresh territory.
Alec: Our mission is always to surprise and delight players, but we can’t just be reactive; we have to build for the long term and continue to improve the game. Sometimes that takes disrupting the status quo. Even as the introduction of Perks creeped up, that old feeling never went away—that small fear that we'd tarnished something we loved.
But my takeaway from that experience is that we held certain things too close. We are now more willing to take risks and more willing to give ourselves tougher challenges. Our team is working on a number of those challenges right now. I think we've learned so much about working well together and what we're capable of as a team that those lingering feelings aren't as scary as they once were.
Dion: It has been amazing to see how our art, engineering, narrative, and gameplay teams have come together over the past 3 years. I feel a great sense of pride in the collective growth of our team and community. We have some of the best heroes and maps to date. I love playing Ramattra, Juno, Venture...and a certain unannounced Hero. The intricate details of New Junk City and Runasapi are inspiring, and the transformative gameplay of Stadium and Perks is exciting to me. Our team is trying lots of ideas, refining previous choices, and experimenting in a way that feels like the original magic of Overwatch.
Looking ahead, I am more excited than ever about what’s to come. Without giving too much away, I can say that the future holds bold new directions—both visually and thematically. We’re exploring untapped corners of the Overwatch universe and experimenting with styles and storytelling that will surprise even our most dedicated fans. Thank you for joining us on this extraordinary adventure. I am deeply grateful for the trust and passion that the team brings every day and for the community’s continued inspiration, which drives us to push boundaries and redefine what is possible in this universe. Here’s to many more years of creating, imagining, and playing together!
Aaron: I’m so proud of this team and the people they’ve become. I’m also proud of what they’ve accomplished, but we’re not done yet.
In our last Director’s Take, I talked about the strategy of releasing two large beats each year as well as the team’s willingness to take more risks with the game. Each time we planned one of these larger releases, like Perks in Season 15, we had a lot of trepidation that we were changing too much with the game. Each of those seasons felt huge to us as we were building them, but after they launched, I would look back and think that we could have done even more. Season 18 was the first time that I think we crossed the finish line for what a solid mid-year beat ought to be. It felt impactful, but it’s the mid-year beat, so the start of the year will be even better. We’re looking forward to what we can accomplish in the future with bigger aspirations, a shared vision for what Overwatch is and has the potential to be, and the drive to make a huge impact with our future releases. We can’t wait for you to see them.
From the bottom of our hearts, we’d like to thank you for going on this journey with us for the last three years and we hope that you’ll join us for another three! They’re going to be pretty wild. So buckle up...and let’s make a great game!