Are map passives coming to Overwatch 2 in season 4?

First hero passives, now map passives?

Image via Blizzard Entertainment

There have been plenty of new things added to Overwatch 2 since the sequel dropped last year for PvP, and players are getting more and more content every time a new season comes out. Many players have been asking about map passives, for example, since a video explaining them started making the rounds on social media.

Recommended Videos

A TikTok video explaining some of these map passives has fans wondering whether they’re actually coming or not. It described that some heroes would have their abilities expanded upon on certain maps, such as Lucio’s Sound Barrier or Reinhardt’s Earthshatter.

Are OW2 map passives real?

This video has a lot of people thinking that the passives are coming to the game, but no official information about map passives has been released by Blizzard ahead of season four. The TikTok has a lot of people believing that they are coming in the next season, but no such thing is currently planned.

There are role passives, which is why fans likely believe that something like this could be added to the game in the future. But it is unlikely that the developers will add something that gives one hero a specific advantage over others, especially since it would skew the competitive scene toward those heroes, which is a tactic that developers tend to try to stay away from, especially when it comes to balancing.

Typically, each hero is looked at after each competitive season and buffs and nerfs are considered depending on how often they were chosen. Map passives would very much skew that result and would make it very difficult to balance heroes. It would add another layer of balance, making it more difficult to create an even playing field.

Overwatch 2’s season four hasn’t been announced yet, but players speculate it could be coming on or around April 11. It will see the removal of Map Pools in the game, making every map available in Competitive, and a new hero will be released, among other goodies that come with a fresh new update.

Author
Image of Jessica Scharnagle
Jessica Scharnagle
Jessica has been an esports and gaming journalist for just over five years. She also teaches esports journalism at Rowan University. Follow her for all things gaming, @JessScharnagle on Twitter.