Forgot password
Enter the email address you used when you joined and we'll send you instructions to reset your password.
If you used Apple or Google to create your account, this process will create a password for your existing account.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Reset password instructions sent. If you have an account with us, you will receive an email within a few minutes.
Something went wrong. Try again or contact support if the problem persists.
There are multiple characters facing each other, with two of them jumping through the air. There are trees in the background.
Image via Blizzard Entertainment

Overwatch 2 dev clarifies respawn timer ‘experiments’ in season 8

Everyone may have jumped the gun a little bit.

Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller provided some clarification today, Nov. 20, for something he said in a recent blog post about “experiments” that the team would like to run in season eight.

Recommended Videos

Last week Keller wrote about things that his team intends on trying out to see if they can make the game “more enjoyable to play,” and one of the things he pointed to was “drastically reduced” spawn timers. In a post to Twitter today, Keller suggested that his words may have been slightly misconstrued. “Faster respawn times was an example for short (i.e. limited time) experiments that we would like to run starting in S8,” Keller said. “These would not be permanent and would not affect all areas of the game, especially comp.”

Reading Keller’s original post last week, players noted that the team was looking to toy around with potential changes in season eight, but the ambiguous way that Keller worded it clearly confused many of us, who believed that the team was planning to implement significantly shorter respawn timers to the game, potentially including competitive play. However, the way Keller’s text reads is apparently intended to be hypothetical.

“We’re also excited about running some experiments aimed at making the game more enjoyable to play,” Keller wrote. “For instance, what would happen if spawn times were drastically reduced? Look for those to start in Season eight.”

Keller didn’t expand on any of the other potential experiments that Blizzard might do in an effort to enhance players’ experience, but he did say that whenever they do bring an experimental element to the game they will take precautions to make it “obvious” to players that there is an experimental feature in the game.


Dot Esports is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy
Author
Image of Max Miceli
Max Miceli
Senior Staff Writer. Max graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a journalism and political science degree in 2015. He previously worked for The Esports Observer covering the streaming industry before joining Dot where he now helps with Overwatch 2 coverage.