Overwatch 2 had been the undisputed hero shooter champ for years, but that all changed when Marvel Rivals borrowed some of its best ideas and slapped some of pop culture's most famous faces on top. Now, in what I'd call slyly catty remarks, developer Blizzard Entertainment says it's committed to making sure Overwatch 2 is the "best competitive team-based hero shooter" around.
That comes courtesy of a new Overwatch 2 Spotlight blog, where the developers broke down some pretty drastic changes to the game, including upgradeable perks, a new third-person-centric mode, the return of loot boxes, a map voting feature, and much more. Season 15 and Season 16 are easily bringing in more new and exciting features than Overwatch 2's seen since its launch - finally, arguably justifying the '2' at the end of its name - but Blizzard says it's just staying competitive.
"This will be one of Overwatch's most significant years so far," the blog post teases, "and we can't wait to have you all dive into the updates coming your way. In our continued drive to be the best competitive team-based hero shooter, this year will see a variety of updates that improve gameplay, update competitive rewards, introduce all new experiences, new metas, new heroes, key quality-of-life updates, and some of the best cosmetics we’ve ever made."
Comparisons between Overwatch 2 and Marvel Rivals have been everywhere, exhaustingly so, months before the latter even came out late last year, and the discourse has only continued to be head-shaking since. Twitch star Shroud argued that Overwatch 2 is easily the better shooter, while fellow streamer Ninja sat on the other side of the fence, calling it a "dead" game.
Whichever side of the debate you sit on, competition can only be a good thing for both games. Overwatch 2 finally seems like it's got some fire in its belly. And, hopefully, Marvel Rivals can step up to the plate with some of its own exciting ideas, too.
Not a fan of either? Check out the other best FPS games you can play right now.
Overwatch 2's next seasons go hard after Marvel Rivals lit a fire under Blizzard: upgradeable perks, a big third-person mode, and loot boxes are all coming
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