Overwatch won’t be sporting a battle royale mode anytime soon, Game Director Jeff Kaplan has confirmed.
“A lot of times when I hear some of our fans pitch it, they’re like ‘Oh, just put a card in the Arcade one day that’s a battle royale mode,’ and I’m like ‘F**k, that would be awesome.’ But there’s a lot of design and tech work to get us to that place and not just feel like a me-too game,” Kaplan told Kotaku.
“First and foremost, Overwatch is a game about heroes, and part of what makes the core loop work in a battle royale game is the search, the looting, and the fairness that everybody’s sort of equal,” Kaplan continued. “Overwatch wasn’t designed to be a 1v1. Every hero’s not balanced against every other hero.”
Kaplan added that there are other hurdles as well, including map size.
“I think there are also some technical challenges of large, open game spaces,” he continued. “Our primary engagement distance is usually around 15 to 40 meters. The Hanamura dojo point B is 45 meters across. I don’t think people realise how tiny it is. Part of what makes Fortnite and PUBG so awesome is that you can have these really long engagement distances.”
While Kaplan seems to enjoy the battle royale genre, he said it’s not suited for Overwatch.
“Building those systems and getting that many players [100, to be exact] — I think battle royale for Overwatch starts to get into new game territory,” he concluded.
Would you like to see Overwatch‘s team take on the battle royale genre? Why or why not?
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