Once upon a time, Overwatch led the way. Overwatch was the curve. While there were other early birds in the race to monetize every second of our gaming time (Fortnite, Ultimate Team, the gacha trend), I would suggest that Overwatch is the main cause of the live service nightmare we’re experiencing. currently enduring. Blizzard has the blood of Concord on its hands. But recent news that Blizzard is developing a mobile game based on Overwatch shows just how far it has fallen.
This is no small matter with mobile games. Some mobile games are great, and (apart from those that indulge in obvious money grabs), I respect that even games I don’t like can provide an easier, cheaper way to game than consoles and PCs. Instead, it’s a small dig at Overwatch. Once the world leader in its genre (and in the industry, winning Game of the Year in 2016), it has been stumbling for years.
Overwatch 2 showed Blizzard following, not leading
Maybe it all started with Overwatch 2. At a time when gamers were stuck with hero shooters like Overwatch (and the many games directly inspired by them) that were forever games, a sequel seemed strange. To justify its existence, it promised a story mode campaign that would bring a new level of depth not only to the world, but to what hero shooters were capable of.
There were grumblings that this seemed like a response to the lootbox gravy train drying up, with Blizzard moving to the battle pass model that presented itself as fairer and gave out prizes for skill and dedication, but actually required a lot more grinding. Not to mention the new heroes getting a paywall for the first time in history. With loot boxes you can get lucky and take a ride with the house, even if the house always wins in the long run. But with a battle pass, there was a higher buy-in and a greater requirement to never stop playing Overwatch.
But hey, at least it would have this revolutionary story mode. It was then revealed that it wouldn’t have this story mode at launch. Then it was revealed that it wouldn’t have this story mode at all. So aside from the obvious reason for charging the old Wallet Extractor 3000, which had run out of juice when the world moved on from loot boxes, there was no reason for Overwatch 2 to exist. Yet it did exist , and while it had a shiny new toy bump at launch, it never came close to the level of world domination that the original once achieved.
Can Overwatch do something new in the mobile genre?
And now we come to the mobile game. Details about this are currently scarce and come from Jason Scherier’s book Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future Of Blizzard Entertainment. As Dexerto quotes, the passage reads: “Overwatch was led by Walter Kong, who oversaw the release of regular heroes and content for Overwatch 2, as well as new projects such as a mobile version of the franchise”. We don’t know if it’s a new game or a mobile port of Overwatch 2 itself, but whatever it is, it feels indicative of Overwatch’s current place in the ecosystem.
Once a trendsetter, Overwatch has fallen behind and now has to chase better ideas from other games to gain a foothold. Games like Call of Duty and PUBG have shown that there is huge profit (and a huge player base) in mobile shooters, but where these games managed to find that player base untapped early on, the well is now in danger of running out. dry.
Overwatch is of course still very popular and is a huge brand. Switching to mobile would be a big deal. Considering Call of Duty was made under the Activision Blizzard umbrella and Diablo Mobile was made under Blizzard’s own roof, this wouldn’t be a clumsy search in the dark. Kong’s involvement also suggests that this is a priority for Overwatch rather than a cash grab. I mean, a bigger cash grab than usual, you know?
We can’t judge whether the Overwatch mobile game will be any good – we don’t even know what it is. And it could very well come with a new feature that reminds us why Overwatch led the way for so long. But it feels like a move inspired by the desire to follow the herd, and ultimately that seems much more like Overwatch’s speed these days.
