To answer community questions and discuss upcoming changes to Overwatch, Game Director Jeff Kaplan launches the first Developer Update of 2020 with details surrounding the new Experimental Card, Hero Pools, and more.

The Experimental card will be a main play card on Overwatch that will enable players to help the development team test out new balancing ideas and adjustments to the roster of heroes and villains. Instead of the Public Test Realm (PTR), this will be integrated into the full game, and the progress and experience that players gain from participating in the Experimental play will further their levels and progress on their account. It’s a more transparent and readily accessible way to connect the developers and a wider audience of gamers in the Overwatch community.

Game-balancing and gameplay changes will be directed toward adjusting or tweaking the meta, rather than just stability. It’s a shift in design that will be interesting to observe.

Also, when Season 21 of Competitive Play launches in March, Overwatch will feature Hero Pools. For a week at a time, certain heroes will not be available for selection in competitive play. That roster of banned characters will change every week. This method differs from other online multiplayer games. Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege, for example, let’s the players decide which characters to ban. Overwatch will make that decision, though.

It’s clear from the Developer Update that Jeff Kaplan and the whole Overwatch team are actively responding to feedback, and it will be interesting to see how the community reacts to the changes.

For the full disclosure of upcoming changes, be sure to watch the video above.

What do you think of the Experimental card or the Hero Pools? Are you intrigued by the changes?