In a new developer update, Overwatch lead designer Jeff Kaplan detailed changes coming to Blizzard’s hit team-based shooter. Players will be able to bookmark their own highlights while they play the game, and they can also export them as videos. Meanwhile, Blizzard is promising that loot boxes will soon give out fewer duplicate items.
Overwatch has been a huge hit for Blizzard since its release in May 2016 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. It already has over 30 million players. Quality-of-life updates like these can keep those players happy (and likely to spend more money on the game).
Overwatch already has a highlight system, but players only have limited control over how that works. The game automatically saves a few clips from your matches, but they disappear after a short amount of time. You also can’t specify what moments you want to save, so you need outside capture software if you want specific highlights.
The new system will let players map capture keys that will save specific highlights. Overwatch will then store these moments and the ones it automatically grabs. Players can then turn these highlights into video files (on PC, you can even make the highlight video play with better graphics options than your machine can run the game).
June 5th: The AI Audit in NYC
Join us next week in NYC to engage with top executive leaders, delving into strategies for auditing AI models to ensure fairness, optimal performance, and ethical compliance across diverse organizations. Secure your attendance for this exclusive invite-only event.
Kaplan also promised that changes are coming to the game’s loot box system, specifically making duplicates less frequent and granting players more credits for any duplicate they unlock. Loot boxes are Overwatch’s way of monetizing itself after launch. Players can either earn loot boxes slowly by playing the game or by purchasing them with real money.
Each one has four cosmetic items. After hours of play, you’re likely to start getting a lot of duplicates. Each one of those gives you in-game credits that you can use to buy cosmetics directly, but you get a small amount for each duplicate. Players had been complaining that loot boxes have become less valuable to them since they mostly get repeats, so this change could help ease those negative feelings.
