Blizzard has ‘large ambitions’ for Overwatch, hints at possible spinoff

By Aaron Mamiit Published May 5, 2019

Overwatch is already three years old, but Blizzard apparently still has big plans for the massively popular hero-based multiplayer shooter.

“Last quarter I talked about how we have very large ambitions for the Overwatch universe and how it can develop over time,” said Blizzard President J. Allen Brack in an earnings call with investors. He described the game as “a huge tentpole franchise” for the developer, and that it will keep dedicating resources and attention to the multiplayer shooter to keep the community and franchise growing over time.

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Blizzard will be adding new heroes, new maps, and new experiences to Overwatch over its 2019-2020 fiscal year, with the development team looking into “the balance of working on the existing game as well as … focusing on the other work that they have.”

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It is not surprising that there will be more heroes, maps, and experiences coming soon to the game, as the development team has kept releasing new content to keep it fresh. However, Brack’s statement on “other work,” though vague, is intriguing.

Is Brack referring to a new Overwatch project, possibly a spinoff? The Overwatch universe can still be expanded in multiple directions, such as through entries in other genres. Whatever the development team is working on, it appears to be big enough to draw them away from focusing on the existing game.

This “other work” may also be referring to the ongoing growth of the Overwatch League. The esports league, currently in its second season, will take another page out of the traditional sports league playbook in its third season with the addition of home and away games. The league’s 20 teams will start hosting matches in their home markets across the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, China, France, and South Korea.

Gamers looking forward to learning more about Blizzard’s plans for Overwatch, however, will not do so at Gamescom 2019. The developer recently announced that it will not have a booth at the annual video game event, but that it will be sharing more details about its current projects “when the time is right.” Maybe Blizzard will reveal what this “other work” is all about at E3 2019?

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What is DPS in gaming?

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Gaming is filled with jargon that sounds like complete nonsense to anyone not totally plugged into the space. Terms like Metroidvania and rouguelike/roguelite are rough enough, but when we abbreviate terms, it can be impossible to figure out what they mean, even when said in context. DPS is a term first used mainly in MMORPGs, but it has found its way into other genres like hero shooters and single-player RPGs, among others. It can, and is, applied to just about every game involving combat of some sort. If you've heard people complaining about their DPS, or see it listed as part of a weapon's stats, here's what it all means.
What does DPS mean?
DPS stands for Damage Per Second. It is shorthand for saying how powerful a weapon or character is by either listing its DPS as a number -- in which case the higher the number, the better -- or as its general role in a team. DPS on a weapon takes into account several things to make one more consumable stat, including how much damage it deals with each attack and how quickly it can attack. By dividing those numbers into seconds, you can equally compare how much any weapon or ability will do compared to another. For example, if one weapon hits every 2 seconds for 100 damage, the DPS would be 50, while a weapon that hits four times per second, but only deals 25 damage per hit, would have a DPS of 100.

In team games, DPS is often used to refer to one of the major roles. Tanks are characters meant to absorb most of the damage, healers heal, and DPS characters are the ones in charge of dealing the bulk of the team's damage. They are the team's aggressive killers, such as Soldier 76 in Overwatch 2 or the Black Mage in Final Fantasy 14. All their abilities and skills tend to be offensive-focused and need to rely on the other classes to support them.