---
title: 'Overwatch - 10 Years Of Overwatch'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=RJBAvuK1y2I'
video_id: 'RJBAvuK1y2I'
date: 2026-09-15
duration_sec: 865
channel: 'GameSpot'
---

# Overwatch - 10 Years Of Overwatch

> Source: [Overwatch - 10 Years Of Overwatch](https://youtube.com/watch?v=RJBAvuK1y2I)

## Summary

In this interview, Overwatch developers Alec Dawson and Dion Rogers discuss the game's 10-year journey, highlighting key milestones like the 2014 Core Combat test, the 2016 launch, and the 2026 release of five new heroes in Season 1. They share insights into the game's evolving design philosophy, the return of narrative storytelling with the 'Reign of Talon' storyline, and personal anecdotes about their time with the franchise.

### Key Points

- **10 Years of Overwatch** [00:00] — The interview celebrates Overwatch's 10th anniversary, with developers reflecting on the game's evolution and impact in the live service space.
- **Core Combat Milestone (2014)** [00:29] — The first major milestone was 'Core Combat' in 2014, featuring four heroes and the Temple of Anubis map, which laid the foundation for the game's core mechanics.
- **2016 Launch and Player Learning Curve** [00:53] — At launch in 2016, Overwatch had 21 heroes, and it took players six months to a year to understand how to play the game, mirroring the team's own early learning experience.
- **2026 Hero Surge and Reduced Toxicity** [01:12] — In early 2026, the team announced 10 heroes for the year, with five launching in Season 1. This influx of new content measurably reduced toxicity as players focused on having fun and learning.
- **New Hero Every Season** [01:54] — The plan is to release a new hero every season, providing continuous moments of discovery and keeping the game fresh for players.
- **Surprise and Innovation** [02:06] — The developers emphasize the importance of surprising players and pushing the boundaries of what Overwatch can be, beyond just returning to narrative and heroes.
- **Perk System as Core Innovation** [03:07] — The perk system, introduced in the past two years, is highlighted as a brand-new gameplay system that significantly changed hero capabilities and the overall game formula.
- **Reign of Talon Narrative** [03:43] — The first-year narrative, 'Reign of Talon,' features Vendetta and Doomfist vying for control of Talon, expanding the lore and universe of Overwatch.
- **Community Reaction to Cinematic** [04:24] — The community's uproar over Doomfist's defeat in the first cinematic showed their deep investment in the characters, validating the team's narrative direction.
- **Doomfist's Character Development** [05:33] — The developers wanted to make Doomfist earn his position as Talon's leader, with a resolution coming in a future cinematic that will leave one person standing.
- **Personal Playtime** [06:44] — Dion has over 1,000 hours in Overwatch, while Alec has around 800, showing the team's genuine passion for the game.
- **Early Engine Quirk: Eye Lasers** [07:42] — In late 2013, before a projectile system existed, Tracer fired two red lines from her eyes, a quirky early prototype that the team enjoyed.
- **Alec's Journey to Overwatch** [08:59] — Alec first played Overwatch at BlizzCon 2015 and later joined the team in 2022, fulfilling a dream of working on a game with personal significance.
- **Team 4 and Project Titan** [09:52] — The Overwatch team, known as Team 4, originated from the canceled Project Titan MMO, with some character designs like Tracer and Reaper carrying over.
- **Hero Mains and Playstyles** [10:34] — Dion mains Lucio for his mobility, while Alec started with Tracer but now flexes, often playing tanks like Reinhardt, Winston, and Zarya.
- **Fan-Favorite New Heroes** [12:15] — Dodger (techno-vampire) and Sion (over-the-top action hero) are highlighted as resonating well with players, while Emre's primary fire is praised for its feel.

### Conclusion

The interview underscores Overwatch's commitment to innovation and player engagement, balancing competitive gameplay with narrative depth and continuous content updates.

## Transcript

So we are celebrating 10 years of Overwatch this year, which is monumental, especially in the live service realm, I guess, for lack of a better word. Can you tell me, what have been some of the absolute highs of your 10 years of working on Overwatch?
Wow. I think there's been a lot. You know, Overwatch is this game that can feel magical sometimes when all the right things are happening. And I think that there's a few highlights along this journey.
I think the first one was in 2014. We had this milestone called Core Combat. We had our first four heroes in the game in our first map, Temple of Anubis. And the team at the time jumped in and started playing.
And already we're having a lot of fun. And a lot of it was because we were just learning this game and who the heroes were, right? And if you fast forward to 2016, we launch and there's 21 heroes there.
And the whole world kind of got an experience, like an even bigger version of that moment where it's like, what do all of these people do, right? And how do you play this game? And it took like six months or a year for people to even kind of like settle on like how you're supposed to play this game.
And we've had a lot of moments like that. And I think like what's special about it is we just had another one this year, right? in 20, like, start of 2026, we announced 10 heroes coming this year, and five of them launched in season one.
And it sort of, like, overturned that apple cart again to where people were like, how do you play all these heroes? You know, like, what's this game? What's the meta going to be? What's it going to turn into? We even saw, like, toxicity went down
measurably in the game when those five heroes went in because people were just having fun trying to, like, experience all of that. And I think, like, last little bit here is, like, this year also we're releasing a new hero every single season.
So you get that moment again where, like, there's a little bit more to learn. So start of this year, we had a big moment. We have these little ones over the course of the year. And then we're going to do it all again.
It's the start of 2027. And we're just going to, like, keep going that way in the future. Being able to continue to surprise people is really important. I mean, it's, you know, we've heard a lot from players like, well, they're looking for in the game, it's like, you know, the return to narrative.
And also, we're heroes. But at the same time, we're, you know, we're going full force to those things. But we also want to continue, okay, where else can we push? Where else can we actually innovate in? So that's something that I've, you know, we're just excited to continue to surprise people.
And the community has been really, you know, receptive of everything we've been doing this year. I had no idea about the toxicity going down, too. And you know what, it makes complete sense because if you keep everybody on their feet, nobody kind of has the up high to look down on people from, right?
What are some other unexpected boons, I guess, to the new way in which you're kind of approaching Overwatch? I think, you know, when we look at it, it's really about not being fearful of our changes. We have this sense of, okay, we're going to come in and actually expand your idea of what Overwatch is.
I think that actually, some of the things we've done in the past two years have been at the core of that. The perk system in particular. It's like, that's a brand new gameplay system, the Overwatch. And it changed a lot about Heroes We're Capable of.
And it's like, we want to continue to push in those things and look at Overwatch and say, hey, we're going to continue to make the best competitive shooter, but we also going to do some things that are unexpected and maybe even mess with the formula a little bit Yeah and I think you can also see like we telling our first year narrative in Overwatch this year this story of Vendetta and Doomfist vying for control of Talon
And I think when you look at the history of Overwatch 2, this world that we've built, and all, like, the amazing characters that inhabit it, are one of the biggest draws to this game. And so, like, I think that what you're seeing now with, like, what Alec described,
us taking big swings with the gameplay, us returning to, like, expanding the lore and sort of, like, what the universe is. This is, like, Overwatch kind of, like, firing on all cylinders. And what has been the reception to Reign of Talon?
I mean, I feel like, from my perspective, right, this is the first time in a while where I have all these friends who play who are like, oh, and Doomfist is back? You know what I mean? Like, it's like they're able to recite kind of these narrative beats, which is very unique and cool.
But what's it like from your perspective? One of my favorite things that has happened this year is actually when we released that first cinematic where Vendetta defeated Doomfist. Yeah. And the uproar that we heard from the community about how easily Doomfist went down, and they couldn't believe we would kill Doomfist, you know?
I think it just shows how invested our players are in the characters and in the world. and also that was like confirmation that we made just the right decision to do, you know,
because we knew where this story was going at the end of the year and all those players, like I think that their initial impression is hopefully kind of like turned around now that they saw the video that we released yesterday where Doomfist is like such a badass.
Yeah, gosh, I mean, Rain of Talon altogether has been fantastic. Like it's like getting to follow along and see these updates. and I guess looking ahead, I know obviously you can't spoil anything too much,
but like how would you describe the resolution? Maybe in like a hint of like a little word or something like that that maybe doesn't mean anything to me now. You talked earlier about Doomfist hurting him.
Yeah, so I've never really liked Doomfist as a villain. You know, he's been in charge of Talon, but we don't really know why. We don't know what he's capable of. I mean, everybody knows he's cool, right?
Like, and I think that's why people like him so much, but he hasn't really deserved it, you know? So, like, what we wanted to do this year is, in the world where Doomfist actually takes control back of Talon,
and I can't tell you whether that's going to happen or not, right? But if that happens, it will be because he's earned it, you know? And there's a moment coming, you know? Like, if you thought the cinematic we showed yesterday was cool, just wait for the next one that's coming,
because that's going to be, like, the resolution of all of this, and there will be one person standing that will be running Talon at the end of it. Oh, okay. I'm very excited now and also kind of scared.
Yeah. Yeah, very grateful. You know, and I did want to today to kind of dig a little bit into your guys' personal histories with Overwatch. And so I have to ask you a very maybe shameful question.
how many hours have you put into Overwatch? I think definitely over a thousand, something like that. We play Overwatch all the time. It makes me feel better. I think that's the last time I checked, I was at about 800 myself.
Yeah, we play Overwatch all the time. We'll play something constantly on the team. And then a lot of us will go and we'll joke off and we'll play it by some of our coworkers. So I think one thing that really special about the team is how much everyone cares and how much they play And that like passion that core makes us have the ability to you know make Overwatch West a great game
Yeah. I saw you logging on with Josh for a short drive. Yeah, I actually don't even know how many hours I have in the game. I've been playing since 2013.
Yeah. You know, straight through shooting lasers out of our eyes. Wait, you shot lasers out of our eyes? So, that is kind of a weird thing to just say right there. So, the very first... We've got to back up. Okay.
When we were creating the Overwatch engine, you know, this was late 2013. The first day we got Tracer in, we all ran around, but we didn't actually have a projectile
system yet. So, when you would fire, just like straight out of her eyes, two red lines, you know, would fire. Basically, yeah. And there was no VFX in it. It was just literally two red lines, you know, because in the game, that's where you're firing from.
It's from where the camera is, you know. And so we had a blast kind of like running around just shooting lasers at each other. That's so funny. I had no idea. Yeah. Is there any inspiration to bring back somebody who shoots lasers?
Because, I mean, there's a hero that needs to exist, to be honest. I think shooting lasers out of your eyes is pretty cool. Yeah. We can figure something out. Okay. I'm not going to get that cat now. You can do anything. I think that was the possibility, right?
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Okay. If you see something come next year, somebody shooting a laser out of their eye, you ought to take credit. Thank you. I need to take credit. That's right. That's amazing, though.
You know, and I know you've obviously, you've been with Overwatch since the start, but Alex, you came on. Four years ago? Yeah. 2022. Yeah. What was it like, I guess, getting the call that you were now going to be working on Overwatch?
I mean, it was honestly one of the... It was such an exciting time. I think Overwatch has always been a game that... The first time I ever played Overwatch was actually at BlizzCon.
It was, what, 2015, I believe? Oh, my God. I was doing a demo with D.Va and Genji and everything, and all I did that entire day was get back in line and play Overwatch with all my four different friends.
And so, you know, finally being able to work on something that has that core memory with you. It was my first BlizzCon and everything. But it's like, yeah, and building up that universe and seem to contribute to that universe with a ton of wonderful people,
it's been a dream. I didn't know that story. That's incredibly good to see. That's cool. Would you have been here? Yeah. Yeah. So we call ourselves Team 4. The Overwatch team is Team 4.
And the cousin is the fourth team made of blizzards. Yeah, I know. There's nothing special about it. But the team was started in 2007, 2008 to make, at the time, what was supposed to be Blizzard's next big MMO, you know, like Project Titan.
And with that shutdown, a bunch of us moved on to, like, making Overwatch, you know. So some of the designs we have in the game right now, like Tracer and stuff like that and Reaper, were based off of some things that we had there.
So, yeah, I was on that original Project Titan team and then moved on. Yeah, yeah. You know, something that I did want to ask also, kind of as far as your personal stories with the game, what heroes are your mains? I don't say main anymore because I know, like,
everyone has so many. Yeah, everybody has a few. I think nowadays, I don't play a lot of Judo. Okay, yeah. Because the characters just, like, clicked very early on. But my first like main was like I want to play this Judo Let go see Oh Mobility is sort of like the thing I when there a character with very fluid mobility I like I going to lock in
and like, learn as much as I can about this hero. And I think Lucio just spoke to me on a level of like, why did I have to do all of those things? This guy's like, why are there walls? That was awesome. So way back when when I just kept getting pushed into the well and that was you,
right? The most fun thing for you. And you can, I love, like, I love and hate a good Lucio player. They're so, so good. But, yes. How about you? My first? I don't know if I have it made now.
My first was probably Tracer. Okay. I just loved the mechanics. I feel like the kit is almost, like, perfect, the way that it works. But I typically Q-flex now. Okay, yeah. Which means I typically Q-tank now is what happens.
And so I rotate through a few of the tanks, you know, between, like, Reinhardt, Winston. I love playing Zarya. I'll play Orisa also. But I'll still jump into support, and every once in a while it'll throw me into damage, you know,
and I'll pick up Tracer again or somebody else. But I'm a lot worse at damage than I used to be. I'm the same, because it's the same thing. I always am just like, yeah, whatever, whatever. And then if you don't pick damage, though, you're not going to get it.
So it's like I've gotten really good at Mercy and D.Va because I'm old, apparently. Well, when D.Va came out, you could do flex and get into damage and support a lot. Yes. out of all of the newer characters that have come out,
which is the one that you're like, you've seen fans resonate with the most, or maybe even just personally, you're like, we really knocked it out of the park with this guy. Yeah, there's a few over the course of this year that I think, like,
there's a lot of great cohesion. I think Dodger is a wonderful example of, like, taking an art, there's an art type that we haven't explored yet, this, like, techno vampire, making it the Overwatch version of that, with all the gameplay,
blending all the games with drones. I thought that was just a really perfect, like, perfect, like, sandwich of things all coming together. But I think the one that I personally vibed with the most, because it was just over-the-top, Sion.
Like, Sion, like, from the very get-go, we're, like, we're basing this off some action movies. We need to kick a motorcycle, like, from the air. It was like, we're going crazy with this hero. And she just turned out, she had that personality that sort of, that villainous to her that I think also struck a really nice chord in those people.
Yeah, I was going to say Doctrine also. You know, it's like this amazing combination of, like, of, like, backstory, visuals, and gameplay that, like, really supports this, like, sort of, like, vampire fantasy.
You know, but if we were to move beyond that, I think the primary fire of Emre feels so good. And it's like, hey, Overwatch is a first-person shooter.
You just, you want a weapon like that in the game. And he might not be, like, the flashiest character that we've got, but he has really resonated with a lot of players, and I think one of the reasons is that primary fire.
Absolutely. I completely agree. I think he has been the easiest for people to, like, if you play any shooter, you can pick him up and go, great. Like, he's a very fun to play character. Perfect. Well, I guess we're out of time, so I can't ask you about the inevitable Overwatch Netflix animated series
that I've been asking about for the last three years. But, you know, next time. And we're getting closer, I feel like, right? Yeah. We're friends. Yeah, yeah. But, no, thank you both so much for your time.
I really appreciate it. It's always a pleasure talking to both of you. Overwatch Season 5 kicks off on October 5th, and stay tuned to GameSpot for more Overwatch and Bloodsound coverage.