Dear Reader:
It took a lot of convincing to get Blizzard to merge Overwatch 1 and 2
Blizzard is handling things for Overwatch 2 in a way that's very different from how the industry usually operates. All of Overwatch 2's content will be made available to those who have the first game, and the player bases for each title will be merged together. No matter whether you have Overwatch 1 or 2, you'll be able to experience all content. Just how in the world did that come about? Overwatch technical director John LaFleur explained in an interview with Kotaku.
"It's very challenging because the industry has done things the same way for so long. And so it's hard to get people, push them out of their comfort zone and say, hey I think we could do it a better way.
The way that I try convince people, I try to tell them if we do what's right by the players, they will be happy, we we will have a better game, and we will end up in a better place in the long run. Rather than having this short sighted thinking that's usually driven by anxiety of 'the only way to get players to play Overwatch 2 is to cut off all the Overwatch 1 players and starve them out and force them to come over and, you know, make that game just sort of die on the vine.
That in my opinion is not the right way. I always try to come at things from a player-first standpoint. What do I want as a player? And I'm really lucky I work with a lot of awesome people who are willing to take big risks, and look at things differently and go, hey we can really influence this to be different."