Overwatch’s move away from an open queue to a role-based queue in mid-2019 was a controversial decision. The intent was to simplify the queuing process, but also cut down on the “tension, pressure, disappointment, or even hostility” involved, according to Blizzard. Yet many players, particularly top competitive players, preferred an open queue. Now the open queue is back in a limited-time Overwatch Arcade mode and it’s being received warmly. Better yet, Blizzard appears to be listening.
Thursday evening, Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan hit the game’s official forums to join the conversation regarding open queues. Kaplan starts by saying, “glad you’re enjoying it. we’re discussing the future of the mode right now.” So Blizzard clearly sees an interest that surprised it, at least to a degree. For now, there’s no promise.
Kaplan’s message goes on from there, with the Overwatch director saying that, “it’s interesting to see what regions and platforms are responding to the different modes in the game.” He then posts an image showing the % of daily hours spend in each Overwatch game mode, broken down by region and PC/console. Notably, the new Arcade open queues aren’t incredibly popular on NA or EU servers for PC players. However, in South Korea the Ranked Open Queue Arcade mode is even more popular than Quick Play.
What Blizzard will do with this data isn’t clear. Kaplan’s data shows that while there’s clearly an interest in the Ranked Open Queue mode, it’s no more or less popular than a typical Arcade mode. That’s other than in South Korea, of course.
A minority of Overwatch players are likely hoping that the open queue mode will remain as a permanent fixture, whether in Overwatch’s Arcade or outside of it. While Kaplan’s post may give those players some hope, the data he shared definitely implies that it’s unlikely. Nevertheless, it’s an opportunity for Overwatch players to show their preference and Blizzard is watching.
For the foreseeable future, Overwatch’s main ranked mode and Quick Play modes will remain built on role-based queues. That role queues were implemented in the first place and that they’ve remained in place since shows that Blizzard is encouraged by their results. Nevertheless, that Blizzard is even willing to bring back open queues as an Arcade mode shows there’s more to the subject than might be expected. Perhaps Blizzard isn’t as wholly dedicated to role-based queues as would be expected.
Overwatch is available now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
