Overwatch 2 Can Learn One Lesson From Marvel Rivals Before It Even Releases

Overwatch 2 has gone through an immense amount of change over the years, with its core gameplay always having something different to offer for returning fans. While the newer title was only released in 2022, the wider franchise holds its roots as far back as 2016, with large portions of the game being unrecognizable today compared to its first iteration. Over the course of this long journey, the IP has risen to become one of the most dominant names in the hero shooter genre, inspiring many other titles to offer their own perspective on this brand of gameplay.

One upcoming game that is already drawing a lot of comparisons to Overwatch 2 is Marvel Rivals, which is expected to release around 2025. As a hero shooter itself, Marvel Rivals has a huge range of lessons that can be learned from Overwatch‘s history and current state. A great example of how Marvel Rivals is already able to leverage itself against the popularity of Overwatch is through its ranked system, with it being confirmed that Rivals will feature the option for console-only crossplay for its ranked playlist. While Rivals has clearly learned a lot from Overwatch, this particular element of its ranked system is something that Overwatch can hopefully learn from Rivals going forward.

Marvel Rivals is Already Setting a Ranked Standard That Overwatch 2 Should Follow

While it seems like Overwatch 2 has a very strong hold on the genre of hero shooters, there are many upcoming projects that believe they can stamp their mark on this corner of the industry. News recently broke about an upcoming hero shooter from Valve, allegedly named Deadlock, and Marvel Rivals is also throwing its hat into the ring.

As evidenced well by Overwatch 2, the competitive ranked scene of hero shooters is a hugely important element of a given title, with the unique team compositions and a wide variety of in-game abilities creating a huge skill ceiling that players enjoy pushing to the limit. Overwatch 2‘s competitive playlist is one of its most alluring features, with players testing their might between the different hero classes of damage, support, and tank, and it seems that Marvel Rivals will be no different.

Marvel Rivals is confirmed to feature 21 playable characters at launch, including famous faces like Spider-Man, Hulk, and Doctor Strange, with the game boasting 6v6 gameplay as opposed to Overwatch 2‘s adoption of 5v5. Players are already excited at the prospect of mastering these different heroes and facing off against each other in competitive play, and news of Marvel Rival‘s offering console-only crossplay for ranked is being very well-received.

Marvel Rivals’ Ranked Approach Addresses a Huge Industry Debate

The merging of console and PC player pools has become a huge point of contention for competitive multiplayer gaming in recent years, with many players citing this as unfair for many reasons. PC players may allege that console users are at an advantage through things like controller aim assist, whereas console players argue that the increased performance and aim fine-tuning of PC gaming offers its own unfair perks.

Not only is multi-platform crossplay becoming more normalized across the industry, but it is becoming increasingly rare for games to feature the option to remove PC and console player pools from matchmaking with each other, a feature that Marvel Rivals is already proud to offer. Fans have been wanting a similar feature to appear in Overwatch 2 for some time, with the increased skill of ranked play making these perceived advantages even more noticeable, but Blizzard has not yet answered this call. The star power of Marvel Rivals‘ playable characters is already a huge pull factor, and Overwatch 2 should consider adopting the game’s ranked matchmaking freedom to keep itself strong at the top of the hero shooter genre.

Overwatch 2

Franchise

Overwatch

Released

October 4, 2022

Genre(s)

Shooter

Platforms That Support Crossplay

PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S

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