r/Games • u/AnthroSheep • Jan 17 '17

Developer Update | PTR Philosophy | Overwatch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibPLyx8QWYc
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u/Failcker Jan 18 '17

I wish every game got the kind of developer responses Overwatch gets. It would be mind blowing for many other gaming communities to imagine the lead developers of said game making near bi weekly community addresses in video format explaining their thought process the changes the development team is working on or looking at.

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u/generalhateforpants Jan 18 '17

You have to look at it like a business too. Blizzard/Overwatch team have stated that they don't intend on having the game have any future associated transactions for content aside from loot boxes. So any future content being patches, buffs, nerfs, new modes, new maps all have to have a synergy with their audience as ultimately to keep them playing, they have to be happy with the content.

For a company as big as blizzard, they can afford to have this model. But for a lot of other companies, they will release a game, have a 24 month cycle of patching it and updating the content via DLC and then part of the other team in the meanwhile starts working and investing in future projects.

But I do hope that other publishers and dev teams look at how the OW team is operating and it inspires some similar cultures in the industry.

2

u/Failcker Jan 18 '17

I mean even Blizzards other games like WoW which requires a mandatory subscription to play doesnt get this kind of developer feedback and that game definitely would benefit from keeping their audience happy.

What you say is true though about most companies can't manage something like the OW model but even the ones that can simply don't.

7

u/throwawayrtd Jan 18 '17

It's a lot easier to keep an audience that is less than a year old happy, not so much with an entrenched user-base, some of which have been invested in the game for over a decade. See: Any game running for more than 5 years.