Jeff Kaplan says Adding Battle Royale to Overwatch is Hard

If you are a fan of Overwatch and have been thinking that what the game really needs is a battle royale mode, game director Jeff Kaplan agrees. He thinks a battle royale mode would be awesome, but it’s not that easy to pull off. Kaplan says he would love to make the mode happen, in fact, he says he and his team have actively considered adding such a mode according to Kotaku.

The problem is that just tacking on a battle royale mode could result in a rejection by players. Kaplan said, “A lot of times when I hear some of our fans pitch it, theyre like ‘Oh, just put a card in the Arcade one day thats a battle royale mode,’ and I’m like ‘Fuck, that would be awesome’. But theres a lot of design and tech work to get us to that place and not just feel like a me-too game.”

Kaplan says that he and his team are PUBG fans and have put lots of thought into battle royale. He says the problem is that the heroes in his game arent balanced against each other. That balance is critical to the fairness of a battle royale game. If you had one super powerful character against others that weren’t there would be no balance.

The other issue is that Overwatch maps are very small compared to what is used in PUBG and Fortnite. “I think there are also some technical challenges of large, open game spaces,” said Kaplan. “Our primary engagement distance is usually around 15 to 40 meters. The Hanamura dojo point B is 45 meters across. I dont think people realize how tiny it is. Part of what makes Fortnite and PUBG so awesome is that you can have these really long engagement distances.”

“Building those systems and getting that many playersI think battle royale for Overwatch starts to get into new game territory,” he said.