“You were right. We were wrong.”
A surprise dev chat has revealed that Overwatch 2 will no longer have map pools in Season 4.
As Overwatch 2 continues to drop new content, developers had decided to limit the amount of maps available for each game mode each season to keep the game feeling fresh. But this decision had received a lot of backlash from Overwatch players that wanted every map available. In response, devs have admitted: "You were right. We were wrong."
Starting in Season 4, there will no longer be map pools.
"We aimed to provide a bit of freshness each season and concentrate the number of maps that people were playing, however player sentiment around map pools was pretty low, the map roster doesn’t have enough maps where we truly need them, and the impact they had on seasonal identity was fairly low," the update from director Aaron Keller read.
The other reason for the removal of map pool revolved around the "cadence for maps leaving and returning" not aligning quite as developers originally planned. Map changes were not happening quick enough. For example, Gibraltar was going to return in Season 4 but developers are no longer sure that's possible. Meanwhile, the Overwatch team wants the playerbase to have more maps to play on while they await the map's return.
But this wasn't the only reason for the removal of map pools...
New game mode coming to Overwatch 2
One of the reasons the map pool and map frequency have become so important to address is because a new game mode is coming to Overwatch 2. In the blog, Keller reminded Overwatch fans that a new game mode is scheduled to release later this year — and it's coming with new maps.
Earlier this year, Keller spoke with NME about the new content coming to Overwatch 2 later this year. Not only will there be "a lot more" events, but there will be "several new and returning game modes." One of the returning modes will feature teams of six like in the original game, but not much is known about the new concept.
The new game mode has not been officially revealed and the maps are still a mystery. But it seems like new content is most definitely in the works for Overwatch fans. Dexerto recently interviewed Dion Rogers, who stated that players should expect multiple new maps when the new game mode finally drops.
"We probably would never release a new game mode with just one map," he explained. "Our goal is to give a nice variety on it so you can get a sense of strategy on one type of layout and you can get a sense of strategy on another."
Meanwhile, map pools may return in the "far future" once there are more maps. But if map pools are brought back, Keller said that they would rotate much faster. They would even rotate every week. For now, the Overwatch 2 team is asking for more feedback, both positive and negative.