Phil Spencer may have shown up at the BlizzCon 2023 opening ceremony to proclaim that "the future of Blizzard is brighter than ever", but the CEO of Microsoft Gaming isn't quite ready to get into the details. The ink has barely dried on the Xbox acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and there's no doubt plenty to be worked out behind the scenes. But that isn't to say that key developers at Blizzard aren't excited about the possibilities.
During BlizzCon 2023, Overwatch 2 executive producer Jared Neuss told me that the opportunity to work alongside the talented teams at Xbox Game Studios is "super exciting". Microsoft has a wealth of internal FPS talent, from the Halo teams at 343 Industries to the shepherds of the Wolfenstein and Doom franchises in MachineGames and id Software, there's arguably no better place for Overwatch 2 to be as it continues to battle back from a divisive launch – read our original Overwatch 2 review for more on that one.
Speaking to the potential of collaboration, Neuss reflected on his own history – having worked on shooters like Halo 5: Guardians and Destiny 2 in the past – as he teased out future opportunities. "As a person who worked on Halo at Microsoft, one of my favorite things is how the experience that I and other members of the team are able to bring to our development process on Overwatch 2. And being able to tap into even more people who have experience in this space, who have tried different things and have learned different lessons, is something I'm personally very excited about."
"Being able to tap into even more people who have experience in this space is something I'm personally very excited about"
Jared Neuss
Neuss is keen to stress that "what form that takes is obviously not something we're talking about" just yet, but does give some hint towards how the Overwatch 2 team can iterate and evolve its ideas, and how it can help other Xbox teams do the same. "Just knowing that we have that many more people that we can reach out to and just have frank discussions with about the development process is super exciting to me because there's a lot that we can all learn from each other."
Something we learned about Overwatch 2 today is that it's far too early to count the free-to-play shooter out just yet. The development team is teasing out big changes to competitive play, a raft of incoming quality-of-life improvements, and the arrival of a brand new hero this December who already looks like an utter delight.
There's still plenty more to come from Overwatch 2 this weekend too, with a deep dive into the next season still on the BlizzCon 2023 schedule. And we'll have more from our great conversation with Neuss live on 12DOVE in the coming days.
