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Is the Overwatch Team Hiding Something Big?

Is the Overwatch Team Hiding Something Big?

Overwatch has 12 maps and 23 playable characters, but doesn’t have a single-player campaign. Some fans even feel cheated by the lack of single-player content. Indeed, it is one of the only common complaints among user reviews. However, that might be about to change. Blizzard has posted two highly suggestive jobs that hint at the possibility. With so many Overwatch fans wondering where the single-player is, it’s reassuring to know the Blizzard is at least thinking about it. Blizzard built a rich and engaging world with the animated shorts for each character within the game; it is only fair that the developers allow the player to explore it in the future.

To be perfectly clear from the start: all of the following speculation is based on two job postings and a launch-period interview from Blizzard. Both job postings are for software engineers and definitely point to a new game in development for Blizzard. They state that “a robust first-person engine for an unannounced project” is required, and consider “previous experience working on first-person or other action-oriented games” a plus. These are of course extremely general terms, but since Overwatch is Blizzard’s latest standalone breadwinner, It’s not unreasonable to think it’s a property Blizzard wants to work on.

The interview is much more convincing and from far earlier in the year when Blizzard was still promoting the game’s launch. On Overwatch ‘s Facebook page, Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan expressed his desire for co-op and single-player: “I think everybody knows Blizzard has a passion for storytelling and we also love doing single-player and co-operative campaigns. You see it in a lot of our other games: StarCraft, Diablo, World of Warcraft. There’s a lot of knowledge and passion in the studio around doing single-player content – or, more likely for Overwatch … something more co-operative. But we’re nowhere near having anything like that. It’s a far thought from us right now… The game we’re making is really a competitive 6v6 shooter, and if there were some great idea we wanted to pursue in the future, that would certainly be among them. A little bit too soon for us to think about or even plan something like that right now.”

Is the Overwatch Team Hiding Something Big?

It’s been nearly a year now and Overwatch has been going strong. New content has kept the community alive and thriving, with maps and characters being added quite often. In addition, with the Halloween event being such a major success, there will be probably be more holiday events soon as well. If a co-op or single-player campaign appears, it would make the $60 for the full game so much more worth it. Personally, I can see an Overwatch co-op becoming the next Mario Kart . It could be the perfect game to pop in when you have friends over and nothing better to do while dinner cooks in the oven. Overwatch is easy to start playing for nearly anyone, even those not used to first-person shooters. There are play styles available for anyone, be they support (Mercy), tank (Roadhog), offense (Reaper) or anything in between. In addition, the play sessions are short! Long enough to be great fun and short enough to put down if life calls and wants your adult card.

So, two job postings and an old promotional interview point to an Overwatch co-op or single-player campaign in the future. My hopes are high! The job postings, if nothing else, imply a new IP. In addition to Kaplan stating that he was definitely thinking about it, they make Overwatch single-player or co-op even more possible.

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