Overwatch 2's Devs Hope Stadium Mode Will Be A "New Pillar Of Overwatch," And They Might Be Right
It's hard to believe that Overwatch 2has been in service since 2023, but it's even harder to accept that the original Overwatch is completely gone. Blizzard made a bold gambit with the sequel, overtaking the beloved first iteration of the game and ditching its highly anticipated co-op mode. Now, the studio is adding a new game type: Stadium.
After nearly two years, Blizzard is adding an ambitious new core game mode, which offers unprecedented access to a third-person view and a perk system reminiscent of the scrapped co-op plans. The aim is to create a new starkly different mode to draw lapsed players in, as well as the existing community. I had the chance to sit down with several members of the Overwatch 2 team coming off of the heels of Season 15 (both the general side and Stadium-centric) to get an idea of how this mode will play out in the weeks, months, and possibly years to come.
Stadium Is A Fully-Fledged Mode With Its Own Dev Team
The Plans For It Sound Ambitious
Overwatch has always experimented with on-again-off-again modes across its two games, but it rarely adds fully-fledged, long-term game types. That's changing with Stadium, coming to Overwatch 2 on April 22. In short, the mode offers 5v5 gameplay with forced role queuing, perks and armory items to acquire, a MOBA-esque shop to buy things from between rounds, full support for ranked leagues, and a third-person viewpoint option (you can toggle back to first-person if you need it).
Stadium developers Ryan Smith and Dylan Snyder were highly enthusiastic about the mode, seeing as it's now their responsibility to make the mode a destination for players. I asked them if they had seen anything so far that could shake up the core Overwatch 2 modes, and while they were coy, they shared a bit about how fun it's been to craft the Stadium experience. Snyder explains that the process has been a "really great collaborative effort with the main team, and what they choose to do with the wacky stuff we come up with is up to them. I mean, Genji was immortal at one point!"

How do you feel about Overwatch 2 bringing back lootboxes?
Despite being one of the more divisive elements of both the original game and the wider free-to-play sphere of gaming, Blizzard has revealed that Overwatch season 15 will see the return of lootboxes, and I'm actually more mixed than upset by the announcement. The announcement came with the explanation that, in addition to some better chance percentages of getting higher-value items, there is a guarantee that a Rare or better item will drop in every single box, and that an Epic item will be within five consecutive boxes and Legendary within 20 consecutive, which is certainly a far better incentive than they were in the past.
Smith steps in, noting that they've been jotting down copious amounts of notes when working on Stadium and that it "definitely got some gears turning in our heads," leading to the team jotting down notes for potential future Overwatch mechanics. All of that will be on the Overwatch 2 team to decide, but it's great to hear about the collaborative nature of the teams all the same.
Stadium will also change how players see certain characters. The team used the example of Moira, who "sometimes in the main game, is seen as a low skill floor hero that gives players a lot of value," but in Stadium, she can "shine and transform in different ways, like critting enemies with her beam, which rewards a higher skill expression and aim skill for her." In some ways, Stadium can feel like a completely different game.
Blizzard Sees Stadium as a "Third Pillar" Of Overwatch 2
For Players Who Want More Downtime, This Might Be Your Mode
While it may seem like a pivot-like response to the encroaching fame of Marvel Rivals, Blizzard says the mode has been in the works for a few years. Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller notes that the team has been "working on it for several years," and sees it as a "third pillar of Overwatch 2" alongside the other main queues (unranked and ranked). Keller says the team was always passionate about adding the Stadium concept into the game, and "ideated on this mode even before Overwatch 2 launched."
The ideation actually came from an unlikely source: Keller's son. Keller explains that they play a lot of Hearthstone Battlegrounds together, and his son actually came up with the pitch deck with him for what would eventually evolve into Stadium. As someone who plays quite a bit of Hearthstone Battlegrounds myself, I can see where he's going with this. If it plays out, this could entice folks who have no interest in what the core of Overwatch is about.
One key selling point of Stadium, Keller contends, is more downtime. Speaking on his team's philosophy behind Stadium, he notes: "So Overwatch 2 doesn't have a lot of downtime to it. There's a constant crazy sort of battle going on. Having a round-based structure with a shop gives you some breathing room. A lot of it is tactical, and executing how well you know your hero and work with your team." I asked Keller about any particular issues they had in development, and he gave me a pretty fun reply.
“Designing Stadium was really fun, but a challenge for the team. We've definitely gotten better at doing it. But when you look at some of the heroes we have in standard Overwatch, as you add power to them, they can feel overpowered, and it can mess with the competitive nature of the mode, or you can feel like they’re just too irritating to play against.
Mei is an example of a hero where you don’t want her just to start freezing everyone all the time…you need to find ways to make her feel more powerful but without pushing her kit too far, like the normal game.”
As for the future of Stadium, the team can make tweaks along the way. Heller states that they can "adjust items and upgrades that people have," or "even take them away," and that the ability to balance Stadium completely isolated from the core modes of Overwatch 2 will "help keep [Stadium] in a balanced state." Stadium will also have seasonal game modes, and more heroes will be added beyond the initial 17 launching with the gametype on April 22.
"We want to see a large percentage of the player base move over to Stadium," Heller told me. Based on what we've seen so far, he might be right. Getting lapsed players to jump back into Overwatch 2 can be a hard sell, but I'll check it out when it arrives to see if I'm missing anything.
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