Fans are tired. The release of Disney’s Marvel and NetEase’s Marvel Rivals has drawn out most Overwatch players and pulled them in devastating Overwatch 2’s total play-count, facing an almost 40% loss. 

This wasn’t exactly a case of better competition but what most fans consider providing the bare minimum and a little beyond.

Not only did Marvel Rivals provide an exciting new play experience, new cinematics, artistic style, characters, character design (some aspects being very important for some players), maps, and mechanics, similar to Overwatch, as a hero shooter but also providing updates at a pace which put blizzard to shame. A little over a month after release, NetEase released two new characters, Mr. Fantastic, and Ms. Fantastic, announcing them along with the rest of the Fantastic Four team, The Thing, and The Human Torch released in February. On top of these updates were various new hero skins.

This trumps Overwatch 2’s updates in the past several months. Releasing the tank hero Hazard in December 2024 to lackluster reception, and Juno being released back in August 2024, with various releases before with Overwatch 2’s release.

In defense of Blizzard, NetEase does have access to the entire catalogue of Marvel Comics IPs at their disposal, with already thought out, written, illustrated and constructed stories, lore, locations, factions and characters. This just leaves NetEase to translate these characters into the format of Marvel Rivals, balancing abilities and designing new adjusted looks for our characters.

Despite this, fans have been leaving in droves forcing Blizzard into action.

This action came as a re-release of Overwatch Classic bringing back the original Overwatch 1 gameplay in a dedicated 6v6 mode.

Accompanying this release, was the announcement of a spotlight stream to be held in February with announcements for big changes, and exclusive viewer rewards. Excitement brewed, anticipation built.

Blizzard went live on Youtube and Twitch, on February 12th ready to make waves.

How big were these waves? Fans got to meet Hero 43, Freja, Hero 44 (codenamed Aqua), and preview the new additions to season 15: Perks, Loot Boxes, a competitive rank reset, competitive hero bans, rank character borders, Stadium mode, galaxy weapon skins, and new skins and Mythics for various heroes. 

Hailing from the flat frosty forests of Denmark, sporting a powerful crossbow and a high jump putting the olympics to shame; Freja takes a new approach to movement with a jump dash ability more fluid than that of Hanzo or tracer, and being able to jump high in the air and hover for a moment while aiming her crossbow. Her bow shoots bolts rapidly, or explosive bolts when aiming down sight. Finally her ultimate, an explosive spinning bola shot decimates close groups of enemies, encircling them and detonating. Many have pointed out a resemblance to Hanzo and Ashe, deeming it a cross due to her weaponry, movement, and playstyle. She was released for Beta playtests on March 22, 2025.

Second, Hero 44, a young Chinese man sporting a wooden staff with water bending abilities, is scheduled to be added in season 18 in August-October 2025.

Season 15

Perks

Throughout a game, players are able to select perks once they have reached enough damage and/or healing and/or eliminations and/or elimination assists. The player chooses between two perks which they use for the rest of the game. This process repeats a second time, with the player eventually able to select from a selection of two more perks. In competitive matches, players are able to reselect perks immediately at the start of a new round (second and above), and upon hero switches.

An innovative edition to the hero shooter format perks are intended to add new variety and excitement to the play experience. Has this worked? Players indicate yes. 

“I think it makes the game slightly more enjoyable,” Responded one student & player.

Not only do the perks provide exciting new gameplay features and experiences, as well as a mild, entertaining learning curb, but it adds a new level to competitive gameplay, the match progression for perk selection using damage, healing, elimination, and elimination assists makes it so the better you perform, especially early in the game, the larger of an advantage you have. In short: The faster you get them or if you get them before others, you have a leg up.

Competitive

Season 15 introduces a competitive rank reset which simply means players are all moved back to zero and can build up their ranks once more. In the future, Blizzard plans to introduce hero bans, allowing each team to vote to restrict two heroes from playing each round.

In addition to practical updates, Blizzard has reintroduced rank Hero borders displaying a frame displaying your rank around your hero portraits.

Loot Boxes

Loot boxes were removed from the game with the release of Overwatch 2, the feature plagued with controversy due to its ethicality, being equated to gambling, with players purchasing 

them with real world money and purchased in game currency, to win random cosmetic items.

The loot boxes have made their return, a choice celebrated by players, though this time not as a gateway to a gambling addiction… In season 15, loot boxes can only be earned in the battle pass, with one free and 2 locked premium loot boxes, by playing matches, and by completing challenges. With these changes It is possible to earn up to 13 loot boxes a week with the slim chance of winning legendary and epic cosmetics.

Player reception has been overwhelmingly positive. 

“I love gambling guys, this is literally so awesome,” said player Marina Poppa. 

“They make me want to play the game, and I don’t have to waste money on the game anymore,” agreed Joel Vogel. 

Blizzard has also provided more transparency in the prize pool and probability in the loot box system.

In the long run, Lootboxes reduce player microtransactions and add a fun new way to earn cosmetics in exchange for playing. It’s a simple system motivating play, and slightly less spending.

Cosmedics

Season 15 has brought a variety of new skins as well as the promise of more. Delighting the Season 15 Battle pass, the Toxic collection includes skins for orissa, doomfist, tracer, and to the rejoice of venture players, a unique skin for the often ignored character, drifting from their usual style. 

The rainy day collection features three skins available for the duration of the season. Players are able to earn the rainy day Mei skin by viewing 12 hours of live streamed overwatch content on a Twitch account connected to their Battle.net account; The rainy day Mercy skin can be obtained by playing 18 matches; and finally the rainy day Kiriko skin can be obtained in the premium battle pass.

The season’s mythic skins include new Chinese mythology inspired skins for Kirirko, Sigma, Orissa, Hanzo, Moira and Reinhardt. With a new God or spirit like appearances. Notably, Sigma’s skin differs heavily from his usual style and depiction, leaving the laboratory and psych ward for the kingdom of the jade emperor. 

Season 15 has also  introduced the new Galaxy weapon variant, pairing perfectly with the season 14 Cosmic and celestial skins.

Another move anticipated by fans for years was included. Blizzard has organised another collaboration with the Korean pop group LE SSERAFIM. In this limited release, Blizzard has brought back recolors of the original 2023 skins. The main attractions are the new skins for D.Va, Brigitte, Kiriko, Tracer, Sombra, Illari, Ashe, Mercy, and Juno. Complaints have been made about the exorbitant prices, each character’s package costing over $20 USD.

Season 15 has been in play since February 18th with a few more months to go. It’s difficult to say whether it has brought back its players or will in the future, but gradual increases in player count have been seen. It is quite possible that with tough competition Overwatch 2 may never recover what it lost with the release of marvel rivals. Despite these losses, competition brings on a new wave of innovation and effort from blizzards which should undoubtedly bring a better play experience.