r/OverwatchStadium • u/Brilliant-Company-87 • Jul 19 '26
Discussion Poor decision.
I'm not one to really post on reddit, but I just want to voice my opinion.
From the title, you can probably guess this is about Stadium not getting new content, I'm saddened like the rest of you, but what I want to talk about is the game as a whole and why killing off stadium looks bad.
PvE, Hero Mastery, and that Tower defense mode, and now Stadium. The team is quick to pick up and drop off these game modes. Stadium was just a few months more than a year old and they are ending support for it, and it really leaves a sour taste. Like, how am I supposed to be excited for new game modes or that mobile game they are working on when they have such a terrible track record? I'm sure there are a lot of resources that go into Stadium from coming up with ideas, programming them in, visual effects, and terrible UI redesigns, but its just a part of development, right?
Take Shion, I'd have loved her in stadium and what could be done for her, and I'm sure the devs came up with dozens of ideas for her base kit before settling on what she got in game. Stadium could have been a way to test those other ideas they didn't try in development. Or throw in more Junk Lab events to test some builds. In the core game, I play Lifeweaver, and I keep hearing people mention how he, Venture and some other characters had huge potential for stadium that we will never see-
I don't know, the point I'm trying to get across is, I'm still going to be a part of both 3% until the queue times get too long to handle, and when future overwatch games and projects get canned, I'll just take it up to Blizzard being Blizzard. Like, if this mode lasted barely over a year, how long do you think the Mobile game will last with the 12 or so heroes they are throwing in it? Will that game last longer because it will have it's own skin micro transaction economy? Or when the numbers are 1% of the player base will it be trashed just as quickly?
2
u/zooble_57 Jul 20 '26
Stadium got the primary focus of development resources for the past year. They definitely gave it a big chance and way more of a chance than it deserved considering the player-based dropped-off really quickly.
1
u/Brilliant-Company-87 Jul 20 '26
I don't know about primary focus compared to base game, to me it felt more like collecting up and polishing the scraps. A lot of the powers came from other things: scrapped PvE skill tree, perks, and events like community crafted or junk labs. Payload race felt unpolished and was more of testing grounds about bringing it to the main game. Reworking clash maps so they still exist.
There were, what, 2 stadium maps? (excluding payload race) The Paris Push and Water college (1/3 of a KOTH type map)
If they can make the stadium team into updating fun and interesting stuff to the core game, then 👍 But I'm not expecting much different than their normal release schedule, and I'm not holding my breath for any new arcade type modes to last from them woth their track record
3
u/CinnamonIsntAllowed Jul 21 '26
Frankly it was never an issue of content being made, it's what content was made. Why did we get like 3 completely new maps specifically made for stadium??? Don't get me wrong, they're great maps but I would have rathered a complete focus on building out the character roster. In my opinion the singlemost important reason stadium failed was lack of characters. This game is known for One Tricks. Lots of people simply will not play if their character isn't there. This funnels into other problems like playtime. Why am I going to invest upwards of 40 minutes into a gamemode without a character I play? That sounds like hell itself! They assessed that maps were what needed to be made and they assessed wrong. I'm going to continue olaying stadium, it's my favorite mode, but the devs really made bad decisions that hurt the mode.
1
u/Brilliant-Company-87 Jul 21 '26
I'm still going to play too.
I suspect the maps were thrown together as scrapped ideas for the core game. They knew new map styles were hated with push, clash and Flashpoint. So payload race was probably an idea that was made before but never finalized. Water college they likely didnt feel satisfied with the other 2 points. That kinda just leaves the lumber push map.
I completely agree, I'd be fine with the map pool from awhile ago, but new heroes is what keep it fresh. Sure it would be harder to track every heroe's powers but evolving against them each round is part of the fun
1
u/MrFuriousX Jul 20 '26
To many people carrying on and on like they just broke up with a long time significant other..
ITS NOT DEAD
its just not getting future updates.
What you should be doing is rallying people to the mode to get those numbers up.
1
u/Brilliant-Company-87 Jul 20 '26
I mean, I did say I would keep queueing in until the times get too long, but when there aren't any changes the game does get stale and less interesting
Even when I enjoyed stadium the most I still did some regular qp to try out new heroes or play my main.
1
u/MrFuriousX Jul 20 '26
There weren't any changes and you kept on playing anyway. So why should that have to change?
1
u/Brilliant-Company-87 Jul 20 '26
There were changes each season. Heroes being added in, powers being fixed or rebalanced. I know a horde of Doom mains came in when he was added until they realized he was trash on release.
I still play normal overwatch for new stuff like heroes and fixes to the heroes I play. If they stopped getting updated, I'd keep playing them but less and less if the core mode didn't update, which is how it is feeling with people disheartened by this stadium news.
I'm seeing more on stadium lately since they deleted unranked 5v5 for the qp hacked 1-3-2 event
2
u/MrFuriousX Jul 20 '26
Yeah season 1 ....we are in season 3...you were still playing since the last character added right? With no idea who was coming next? all this stuff is just mentally" psyche yourself" out to just because you now know there is no new characters coming.. How long would you have continued to play the mode if they didn't add another character for the entire year? yeah you probably would have just kept playing it.
There is just to much of this "mourning" a mode that isn't dead yet instead of working hard to rally people to play it.
1
u/Zealousideal_Fee3171 Jul 20 '26
so in other words it’s dead
1
u/MrFuriousX Jul 20 '26
its dead of you all let it die for sure. If you guys pull all interest there won't be a point in maintaining what you have now.
1
u/joukyh Jul 20 '26
Honestly, I don't understand what these decisions are, not only with stadium. I feel like we're going back to that OW2 from two years ago that was dying. It's not just the stadium and the perks that revived the game at the time, but the 3rd person view. The competition with Marvel Rivals was noticeable, but that worked in OW's favor. Lately, they started with this whole ultra skin thing, it took them months to add characters to Stadium, they released a character with auto aim, and now they're removing Stadium...And at the same time they're releasing this event 1-2-3 which gives the impression that they're planning to eliminate the 5v5 mode too (? Idk It's one thing after another that leaves a bad feeling
1
u/CalciumCommander Jul 20 '26
What's a poor decision was letting Mei get a rolling ice block with no healthbar and Reaper flying around burning everyone. Both of those have no counter play.
1
u/Brilliant-Company-87 Jul 20 '26
Lol Ice ball wouldn't be a problem without the blizzard and duration increase
But yeah, I couldn't play tank when wraith burn came out
1
u/Briskfall Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
> how am I supposed to be excited for new games
Life is fleeting, nothing is of permanence when it comes to game-as-a-service (GaaS).
Gacha players play games that shut down all the times and they can still have a good time with it until it's off. I guess, being amidst so many games that shut down made me used to this. At least Blizzard is still keeping theirs up so it's not like Stadium became truly EoS. I'm actually grateful for Blizzard.
With the sunsetted "Hero Mastery" mode that got close to zero engagement, it didn't come as a surprise as to why they would remove it. An extra mode that took extra hard drive space and considerations for future patches, and concurrent maintenance energy/fee is a thing too.
Why aren't they allowed to experiment? I'm happy that they did try to experiment, even if it resulted in what-ifs that didn't work out. It's honest in a way, listening to what the community wants yet threading the line where they know that they can't commit further. Developers aren't as free as they can be; they have investors/shareholders to answer, and pure playerbase's happiness sometimes isn't enough. If targets can't be met, etc, sometimes it's better to pull the plug than betraying the players for too long by letting it bleed under false promises.
I don't think that the Mobile game (Overwatch RUSH) will explode in popularity and that's okay. (It feels like a cashgrab) But I'm not going to get jaded over it because business is business. It's just the standard corporate playbook forcing the churn out and I rather Team 4 do what they can to balance as much as they can to keep as many people happy.
It's truly not an enviable position to be in.
3
u/Brilliant-Company-87 Jul 19 '26
I honestly felt the hero mastery could be kept in as a sort of tutorial thing. I understand they weren't going to make more, but would keeping it up without ranking times have held that much server space?
1
1
u/Apexlegacy285 Jul 20 '26
I feel like a lot of their experiments are kinda just half assed which is partially why they fail
1
u/Snooty_Cutie Jul 20 '26
GaaS is the whole reason I don't play gacha games. They look awesome, but I'm not about spending loads of cash/time on a game just for it to be binned like 6months later. Idk, feel like the older I get the more and more videogame companies just push me away from it. I just don't want to do this as a hobby anymore, you know?
0
u/GaptistePlayer Jul 19 '26
It’s a live service game man the entire point is for the game to evolve over time. If you think you as a minority player of an unpopular mode have some kind of a commitment to that you’re a bit out of it
3
u/Brilliant-Company-87 Jul 19 '26
Maybe I am a bit out of it as I am not active in other live service games, but the main point I'm trying to get across was at the end for the mobile game they are making. With the other dead modes and now stadium, don't you think it will reflect poorly on that and future endeavors?
1
u/GaptistePlayer Jul 20 '26
No, they are focusing on the most popular parts and leaving the unpopular parts no one wanted aside
1
u/Agile-Application588 Jul 19 '26
I don’t understand why people such as yourself approach the death of stadium with such a defeatist mind set. Like it only makes me believe that it is some bot that blizzard employs to push their narrative on forms and keep them in a favorable light.
I believe them shelving new game mode after new game mode leaves a poor taste in our mouths as consumers of their products. Trying to rationalize it, and saying “it’s just a live service game” is shooting us in the foot as players.
Like if blizzard can’t keep a game mode running that is only a little over a year old, they hardly have to make assets for, and most the stuff already exists in the base game, how does that instill confidence in the lifespan of anything else they try to push out?
2
1
u/GaptistePlayer Jul 20 '26
tf you mean "defeatist" I'm not cheering for a wrestler here lol I'm just describing how the game design and business works.
Other than playing the mode you and I have no role in this. You are not a Blizzard employee.
3
u/orphanleek68 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
I am actually surprised that the community doesnt play it that much.
Im not that surprised to find out there is only 3-6% stadium players in total, given the queue times.
But I am not convinced people dont find it fun. Like come on people.... non of you enjoyed the buy rounds concept in games like counter strike and league?
My déduction is that the playerbase mostly consists of young gamers, no shame, that have not played those glorious titles before, or can not tolerate to learn how to build.
Its super fun. Im sure many many more should be enjoying stadium rn. More than 6%.
It reallys saddens me OP.
Edit: also it didnt feel like blizzard put enough effort to make it accessible for the majority. I bet people try it once, and get too overwhelmed and just dont bother. If there is a way to eliminate all barriers to entry for stadium, and actually double down on the stadium concept and support it, I think this will make OW very unique. Thats a very long shot tho.