Bluetracker
Tracks Blizzard employees across various accounts.
Is the three-week PTR run really necessary for new heroes and maps?
I've been playing this game since January, and I believe all the heroes and maps that've been added since then (Orisa, Horizon, Doomfist, Junkertown) consistently spent three weeks on the PTR from their announcement to them hitting live servers.
I think time spent on the PTR is very important. It's good for the devs to put these soon-to-be very key elements of the game through testing that a lot of the community can take part in, letting them report bugs and give feedback. However... I just can't help but feel like we don't need three weeks.
I've heard people say Orisa needed the three weeks on the PTR because of some issues, but I honestly don't remember well enough to tell if that's true or not. Nonetheless, I know for a fact that with Horizon Lunar Colony, Doomfist, and Junkertown, they all essentially got announced, then had a 'New Hero/Map Preview' video two weeks in. Each of these videos announced the hero/map would be coming a week later.
The question is, do we really need to wait that extra week? Iirc, in all three cases I mentioned above, no changes were even made to the hero/map in that week of waiting. So, why wait? There's no extra testing going on in the last week. People are anxious to play these great new heroes and explore these new maps. Why don't they just cut it, and make it a two-week PTR run?
Looking back, it seems there's precedent for less-than three week PTR runs, too. Eichenwalde got announced on August 16th, and got released Sept. 1st: two weeks and two days. Sombra got officially revealed last year on Nov. 4th and got released Nov. 15th: just a week and a half.
Does anyone else agree with me? Should they make it a two week run, or no? Is it plausible? Maybe you have another idea entirely? I'd love to know your thoughts.
Bill Warnecke
I know a lot of the focus on PTR from players is gameplay balance and design, as an engineer on the Overwatch team the PTR is absolutely invaluable to ensure we're as stable as possible when we go live.
My role is the live operations lead engineer, and for me the PTR is a key part of our release cycle. Without it, my team would be a lot less effective.
I know this doesn't address your exact issue, but I wanted to share a perspective that's not often talked about. Hope it was insightful!
(Also I hope you all had a wonderful BlizzCon!!!)
Cheers