Marvel Rivals’ success is ‘really great’ for Overwatch 2, director says
As 'Marvel Rivals' continues to dominate the hero-shooter space, 'Overwatch 2' boss Aaron Keller has said the success of NetEase's game is "really great" for the Blizzard title because it has created "pressure" on the studio to make "the best possible game [it] can".
‘Overwatch 2’ director Aaron Keller thinks it’s “really great” ‘Marvel Rivals’ has become so successful.
The superhero title - which was developed by NetEase Games - has dominated the hero-shooter genre since its release last year, and Keller has insisted having such a strong competitor to ‘Overwatch 2’ is good as the Blizzard game has “never really” been confronted with another that’s “so similar to the one that we've created”.
Speaking with GamesRadar+, the director said: “We're obviously in a new competitive landscape that I think, for ‘Overwatch’, we've never really been in before, to this extent where there's another game that's so similar to the one that we've created.”
As a result of ‘Marvel Rivals’s success, Blizzard is no longer “playing it safe”, with the NetEase game now becoming a “forcing function” to ‘Overwatch 2’s development team.
Keller added: “There is pressure on the ‘Overwatch’ team, and a lot of it is internal. It’s [asking] how do we make the best possible game that we can? And we've been feeling it for a while.”
The ‘Overwatch 2’ director praised ‘Marvel Rivals’ for taking some of the Blizzard title’s ideas in a “different direction”, though emphasised ‘Overwatch 2’s upcoming Season 15 and Season 16 would “inject a bit of freshness into the game”.
He concluded: “We want to increase the depth of play.”
