When Overwatch 2 launched in 2022, the developers at Blizzard made several decisions that many fans of the original game found controversial. The most notable switch was the reduction in team size from six to five. Overwatch 2 players who had built up a squad of five friends were suddenly forced to drop a friend out of their rotation. In a new Overwatch 2 blog, director Aaron Keller went into great detail about why the change was made, discussing the quicker queue times and the difficulty players had tracking 11 other players during a firefight. However, Keller also said the team is looking for ways to incorporate 6v6 back into Overwatch 2 to further test how the extra player affects the game.
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In his lengthy write-up, Keller said, “We’re looking at running a series of events to try out different core team composition formats in Overwatch 2. The community has, juuuust once or twice, suggested a test. Why not put various forms of 6v6 in the game in order to gauge the results? We agree, and based on your feedback, we’re exploring how we can test different forms of 6v6 in the game to gauge the results.”
However, it’s important to note that this isn’t happening right away. Blizzard has identified several key issues that it’ll need to get under control before it is ready to implement a 6v6 mode. Because Overwatch 2 was designed with 5v5 in mind, the team needs to ensure the game is ready for the extra players from a technical standpoint. Keller says, “This would be a large effort that would most likely take at least several seasons to accomplish.” Plus, there’s always the issue of queue times ballooning, making it tougher to quickly jump into Overwatch 2 matches. Those issues are solvable, it’s just going to take time.
That said, Keller and the team seem keen to try out 6v6 on a trial basis. In fact, it sounds like the team is open to trying out several different player counts to see what works for the community. They don’t currently have an exact timeline for when we should expect to see 6v6 in Overwatch 2, instead calling this massive blog post “just the start of this conversation.”
Overwatch 2 is available now on PlayStation, Nintendo, Xbox, and PC platforms.
