As Overwatch 2 continues to evolve--even dropping the "2" entirely and just going as "Overwatch" from here on out--there's the question of what happens to its characters. Going forward, Overwatch plans on putting story first and foremost, and a big part of heroic fantasy is the conflicts between good and evil and how those conflicts lead to losses or setbacks on both sides. And while storylines like that may be in Overwatch's future, these developments won't ever reflect in the playable roster.
"There [are] no plans to remove any characters from the roster depending on what may happen to them," associate game director Alec Dawson told GameSpot. "But, I think, one thing that's really important to us is to be in lockstep with what's going on with the story throughout the year, whether it be our maps, whether it be events going on, whether it be our heroes, to make sure that they are reflected in what's happening there too."
This sounds in line with what we've seen in other hero shooters that have stories going on in the background of the matches--Rainbow Six Siege has gone through several large shifts, for example, moving away from its counter-terrorism narrative in February 2019 to tell a military simulation sport fantasy, and then returning to the original counter-terrorism throughline several years later. The playable roster of the tactical shooter only grew during those developments, but the framing of matches and the types of new Operators, maps, and skins added in each season dramatically transformed to reflect a new narrative direction.
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