Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
Overwatch Director Says Symmetra Could Receive Major Changes
In an ideal game of Overwatch, every hero plays their role. Some defend, some attack, some heal, and everyone finds their own way to be useful. But according to Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan, Symmetra is having a tough time finding her place. Fortunately, that could change come November.
Speaking with Business Insider, Kaplan says Blizzard is looking into making major change to the character. "She’s one of our least-played heroes, [but] you have to read the stats with a little grain of salt there," said Kaplan. "She’s a hero who’s very situational and she actually gets played a fair bit, but she gets switched off of. What happens commonly is players will play her on defense on the first part of a point, and then when they’ve lost that point, then they’ll switch off of Symmetra. So, that definitely impacts her play time when you’re looking at the stats."
According to Overwatch stats site MasterOverwatch, Symmetra is currently the second least-played character on PC and Xbox one (she's third least-played on PlayStation 4), with only the game's most recent character, Ana, being played less often across all of the game's platforms. This could be due to her odd mix of roles; she's listed as a Support in the game's character select screen, but carries many traits of a Defense hero. Players may not full know what kinds of lineups she works best in, or as Kaplan mentions, may assume she isn't useful past the first lost objective.
According to Kaplan, "I don’t think we’ll see a change go live until probably some time in November." Though the team has implemented some character changes more quickly in the past, Symmetra's changes are substantive enough to take longer to implement. "It’s one thing when we do something [minor] — like, we have a change to Junkrat on the [Public Test Realm] where his Ultimate activates faster," says Kaplan. "But it’s a very incremental, safe change — whereas the type of changes we think need to happen to Symmetra require a lot more internal testing and discussion."
[Source: Business Insider UK]
Our Take
Symmetra is one of my most-played characters, so the idea of her getting major changes both delights and scares me. She could become a lot more useful, but she could also no longer be the character I fell in love with. I do think the character could use a more defined role, so I'm for the changes overall.
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
