Blizzard has revealed their plans to improve Overwatch’s viewing experience

Blizzard has revealed their plans to imporve Overwatch's viewing expereince

Blizzard has revealed their plans to improve Overwatch’s viewing experience

Overwatch has not made a huge impact on the eSports scene, at least outside of Blizzard-hosted events, with casters and fans alike blaming this shortcoming in the game’s viewing experience.  

Overwatch is a game that is full of bright lights, colours and a variety of character skins, creating what can be described as a mess to watch at a competitive level. Now Blizzard has revealed that they have been working to improve the viewing experience of competitive Overwatch, making the game easier to watch/analyse with a host of new tools and options. 

 
To start off, each pro Overwatch team will have their own unique uniforms and colour pallets, allowing both players and viewers to easily identify which team players are on. This new uniform system will first be used at the Overwatch World Cup at Blizzcon, which is set to take place next week. 

On top of this Blizzard has also introduced a new top-down overlay, which will allow casters and viewers to easily spot exactly where all players are at all times, while also providing players with the chance to analyse their tactics post-match in a new way, imporving the level of competative play while also giving casters a handy new tool. 

  

Next up is the game’s new 3rd person camera, which is designed to get rid of a lot of the visual mess that is associated with the game’s first-person camera, allowing the camera to make smoother movements while always following the action. No more sudden camera movements from the player, the camera will now pan smoothly over characters to show viewers the action. 

Broadcasters will also be able to showcase replays of scenes at multiple angles and in slow-motion, giving the game an interesting “instant replay” mechanic when viewed competitively. 

 

 

These changes are designed to improve Overwatch as a competitive eSport, giving casters and viewers alike a better viewing experience with hopes to allow the game to gain more traction competitively. It will be interesting to see exactly how well these new features work at Blizzcon. 

You can join the discussion on Blizzard’s new Overwatch casting tools on the OC3D Forums.Â