The director of 'Overwatch' isn't worried about the competition
"Overwatch," Blizzard's multiplayer shooter that's sold more than 10 million copies since its release in May, is far and away one of the best games to come out so far in 2016.
It's part of an emerging genre in gaming called the "hero shooter," in which a diverse cast of characters with completely different sets of abilities go head-to-head in combat.
Over the past week or so, there's been a conversation within the gaming community about whether Hi-Rez, developer of the forthcoming hero shooter "Paladins," copied aspects of the design of "Overwatch." Certain character designs, weapon sets, and animations are similar in many ways, but the COO of Hi-Rez, Todd Harris, adamantly defended himself against these claims in a lengthy post on Reddit - you can catch up on the whole situation here.
In an interview with Business Insider, "Overwatch" director Jeff Kaplan seemed unconcerned with these comparisons.
"I think it's very common for people to make comparisons about games like that, but I think players should play what games are fun to them, check them out, and have fun with what's out there," said Kaplan. "You know, I play every game that I can get my hands on that comes out, and even if they might have some similarities, they're usually drastically different, so my suggestion to players is just to play what's fun to you and don't worry about the comparisons."
So, while I'm personally a little disappointed we won't get a point-by-point Reddit post rebuttal from Kaplan, it's nice to have some kind of response from him on the whole situation.
Other information from this interview, like when players might see changes to a certain turret-building Support character, will be available shortly.