History WhatCouldHaveBeen / Overwatch

* According to [[https://www.twitch.tv/videos/278653958 a streamed interview between Geoff Goodman and A_Seagull]] (starting around 36:10), Wrecking Ball was conceptualized early on, but had its development put on hold until they decided the time was right. One of the many initially-conceived concepts was a "junkyard magnet bot" who had all sorts of [[MagnetismManipulation magnetic abilities]], being able to pull bullets towards him, tank them, and reflect them back.

* From the [[UsefulNotes/ProfessionalGaming Overwatch League]], the 2019 season saw the debut of the Hangzhou Spark. [[https://weibo.com/2034349013/H2LwHinul The illustrator of the team's logo shared]] [[https://imgur.com/a/1WbUjZY a few early design drafts]], revealing that the team originally was going to be called "Hangzhou Railgun" -- making the [[ShockAndAwe lightning-shooting]] FingerGun of the final logo [[ShoutOut an explicit reference to]] ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'' -- but the name was vetoed by Blizzard.

* According to the Overwatch World Cup 2017's mid-break trivia, D.Va originally had a cat motif, but this was later changed to a bunny to better suit her ability to fly, or "Hop" in her mech.

* [[https://imgur.com/a/3afnH8B Her very first concepts]] (revealed during the "What's Next?" panel of Blizzcon 2018) gave her a long black duster, longer white hair (which was made shorter due to technical issues), and red highlights, but was deemed too "Gothic" (more appropriate for a vampire hunter than a cowboy) and overall too similar to Reaper. [[https://imgur.com/a/c9ovyuI Their "exploration" phase]] came up with additional designs that were also for one reason or another rejected, including a darker-skinned, black-haired variant that was shelved for looking too similar to [=McCree=].

* Genji and Hanzo were originally one cyber ninja in concept. The character however was too unfocused in design due to being crammed with too many ninja weapons and gimmicks. Rather than scrap the idea though, [[DecompositeCharacter the character was made into two brothers.]] Genji inherited the cyborg aspect and sword usage the original character had, while Hanzo inherited the clothes, bow usage, and name.
* There were originally going to be a lot of [[CloseRangeCombatant melee-focused heroes]] in general, to the point where it seemed like it was going to be an entire subclass of characters. You had Genji (katana), Frost (ice pick), Helio (electric maces), Luc (chain sword), [=McCloud=] (claymore), Troy (flail), Yetsi (claws), and an unknown who used a steel pipe. However, they ended up being nigh-impossible to balance properly in the context of a HeroShooter, ranging from underpowered to overpowered with very little middle ground, which has plagued other developers before. The only character in the base game to be straight up melee is Reinhardt, and later Brigitte. Blizzard isn't opposed to the idea of melee heroes, just that trying to integrate them into a gun-based game is ''insanely'' difficult.
* Junkrat's Ultimate was originally going to to be shoulder-mounted rocket instead of the RIP-Tire. It was deemed overpowered, and was instead changed to the current Ultimate.
* Reaper's passive ability ''The Reaping'', where he claims the "souls" of his victims for health would've been more literal. Originally, each claimed soul would've prevented Mercy from being able to resurrect said teammate. Had this remained in effect, this would've made Reaper a hard counter to Mercy, and many games that were decided by a Resurrection could've had very different outcomes.
* ''Overwatch'' was going to have a system called "Talents", which were special abilities that could be used to customize your hero as you leveled up. The only known Talent ability belonged to Reaper, who would be able to automatically heal when in Wraith Form. This was scrapped as it was deemed to give players an unfair advantage over others, and would potentially lead to overpowered heroes.
* Soldier: 76 originally had a self-healing syringe that only would've affected him. It was replaced by the Biotic Field, which benefits everyone in the team, instead of him solely.
* Sombra went through several design phases before her final build-- [[https://assets.vg247.com/current//2016/11/overwatch_sombra_concept_art-7.jpg one concept]] shows her possibly being Asian or Native American, while [[https://assets.vg247.com/current//2016/11/overwatch_sombra_concept_art-3.jpg this concept image]] is actually the picture on the "Quien es Sombra?" newspapers that are scattered about Dorado. In addition, at one point in development, her name was Omniblade, [[http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-11-06-overwatch-blizzard-talks-sombra-arcade-mode-and-symmetras-overhaul as discussed here]].
* Sombra was also originally conceived as a ''Support'' hero, who would've aided the team by hacking everything in sight, and presumably was much less powerful in combat. Originally, she had no cooldown on the hack and it couldn't be interrupted, but this made her hard to use because it required her to know everything on the map, and testers simply didn't have fun with it. Naturally, they changed her into being an Offense hero with a more focused playstyle and a stronger weapon, leading to the Sombra we know today.

* Roadhog and Junkrat were originally going to be much more grotesque, early concepts had them as mutants with Roadhog actually having a pig's head.
* Genji was conceptualized from the beginning (though not in name, see above), but went through quite a few changes before he was officially added to the roster.
** He was originally intended to have a stealth instant-kill backstab, à la the Spy from ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2''. Needless to say, this wasn't fun to play against, so it was removed.
** In addition, his Swift Strike ability originally applied a damage over time effect by way of bleeding.
** Finally, Genji was going to be a melee hero using his sword, similar to Reinhardt. However, Blizzard found this impossible to balance properly, so they instead had him use his shuriken as his default weapon and made his sword an Ultimate.
* Mei was originally conceptualized as a mountain-climbing adventurer with the possible ability to scale walls, and one of her names in development was Frostbite. Another concept of her, revealed by Michael Chu at GDC 2017, was that she would be a bounty hunter, using her freeze gun to capture her marks.
* Before Mei was conceived, the idea of an ice-themed hero came up ''twice''. Both of them were male concepts named Frost and Yetzi, the former had a face-concealing helmet and wore a white coat, and had an "ice axe" (when Blizzard was still experimenting with melee weapons), the latter was an old man that looked monkey-like, used claws, and had an "ice storm" that likely became Mei's Ultimate, Blizzard. While neither saw the light of day, the concept of an ice-themed hero did.
* Bastion's ultimate went through multiple ultimate iterations before settling on its current form, including being able to fire a remote mine, which was scrapped for its dubious synergy for the rest of its kit. [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/comments/5yj2zk/ama_request_jeff_kaplan/dew4q5t/ According to Jeff Kaplan during an AMA,]] other ultimates included grenades, an artillery volley, and even an ability to ''shoot through walls.''
* [[https://www.gamespot.com/articles/overwatch-director-talks-abandoned-cat-hero-patchi/1100-6449176/ Blizzard naturally had many ideas for heroes that didn't made it into the game]], one of which was a ''cat in a jetpack''. It was cut for being too over-the-top, even by ''Overwatch'''s generous standards. It was finally shown in late 2017, and it is ''[[https://www.polygon.com/2017/11/4/16606796/overwatch-jetpack-cat-blizzcon-2017 glorious]]''. It's also not the only jetpack animal that was conceptualized, they had others, including an ''alligator''.
* There was at one point going to be a hero who was a hockey player, and that was his entire theme (whatever abilities he had, they didn't disclose). They loved the concept, but it ultimately didn't make it in. However, they ''did'' make Lúcio have hockey-themed skins.
* [[http://i.imgur.com/AEnJOVd.png?1 The original cast concept]] of ''Overwatch'' displays a very different lineup to the one we know today. While some made the cut (albeit with some minor changes here and there), namely Tracer, Winston, Reaper, Genji, Bastion, Roadhog, Torbjörn, Mercy, and Symmetra, others look like completely different concepts entirely. Among them are a female-looking Omnic bearing Athena's logo who was codenamed "Iris" at the time, a SpiderTank, and a large man in red armor (who according to a FreezeFrameBonus in "Recall" canonically still exists as an Overwatch agent).
* The IGN video series [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huS4_V4e3h0 "Secrets]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzbNZCISJVU about Overwatch's]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLRSsg-gkVw Heroes by]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgdjeEBPRNM Jeff Kaplan"]] gave some development tidbits and backstories of various heroes:
** Ana's development codename was "Alchemist", and was proposed by Lead Designer Geoff Goodman as someone who created potions and concoctions that let her heal people. Jeff was initially against having another sniper when Widowmaker already existed, but she later became a "healing sniper," allowing Ana to still be a sniper that wasn't too similar to Widowmaker and fit with her backstory.
** Lúcio's first ultimate slowed down time for everyone except him (including his allies), but as was described by Jeff, "you'd be on Lúcio's team, running back from the spawn room and then Lúcio would pop his ultimate and you'd be like: 'This is so uncool' so we got rid of that one."
** Mercy was originally the codename for Pharah (who as stated below became "Rocket Dude", "Rocket Queen", then settling on "Pharah"), and Mercy's original codename was "Angelica." This led to an entire year of the dev team being told to "Switch to Mercy" in games, only to switch to Pharah instead.
** Symmetra's ''Teleporter'' required placing both an entrance and exit, thinking it could give more options for strategy, but often times players would miss the entrance, leading it to be simplified to what it is today. As seen in the above cast concept, she also originally wore a yellow dress, which may be made into a skin (presumably different to her Rare "Technomancer" recolor skin).
** One of Reinhardt's iterations had him be from Numbani and themed after wildebeests (the video highlights [[http://imgur.com/AEnJOVd the giant red and gray armored hero in the center of the original cast concept,]] who notably has been seen alongside Reinhardt in the Cinematic Trailer and made a FreezeFrameBonus in "Recall"). At first the idea was that the character was piloted by a little girl, but he was then switched to his own character in traditional armor. The concept of a tanky character hailing from Numbani who was related to a little girl would later be recycled into the Omnic Orisa and her creator, Efi Oladele.
** Junkrat was originally designed with with a more realistic [[Film/TheHurtLocker "Hurt Locker"]] bomb-disposal suit in mind, but changed when concept artist Arnold Tsang pitched the idea "Isn't it kind of funnier if his hair was singed and his appendages blown off?"
** Pharah was originally conceptualized as a male character codenamed "Rocket Dude," but at some point switched to female, settling on "Rocket Queen." The video specifically highlights the winged character in yellow PoweredArmor in the middle-right side of the cast concept.
** Sombra was initially conceptualized to have her stealth be a passive that would activate when she was out of combat. It fell through during this time after the dev team kept tweaking how long it would take before she'd fall under stealth, at one point instantly, making her "pretty much a nightmare," so it was implemented in the final game as a cooldown-based ability... [[DoubleSubverted until it was made into a passive again]] [[HilariousInHindsight as of July 2018]].
* Doomfist went through many design changes throughout his development until settling on his current gameplay. At first, he started out as Tank who was a pure melee Hero. However, as with Genji, they couldn't balance him properly, so they introduce projectiles as part of his kit. He used to be able to [[GrievousHarmWithABody pick up enemy players and use them as human shields or throw them off cliffs]], but that was cut because "he's not a wrestler" (not to mention, it wouldn't exactly make him fun to fight against). He also used to [[DishingOutDirt pick up pieces of the ground and throw them at enemies]]. Also, he used to have a projectile move where he would punch the air, which would create a "phantom fist thing" to shoot out in front of him. Finally, his Ultimate was originally tested out for Orisa before being given to him.

* ''The Art of Overwatch'' shows plenty of this to go around.
** [[https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/geyxsnmsd29igso6lixr.jpg One of Lúcio's iterations]] had -- among other things -- turntables on his hips and pants that would light up alongside his music, though it was toned down for being "too distracting during gameplay." Kaplan has stated [[https://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20755696236#post-2 due to its positive reception, the design may actually still become a skin one day]]... and it did become an anniversary exclusive skin.
** [[http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/304/158/ff0.jpg One of Mercy's earlier designs]] was originally a black man (with white hair) with red accents on his armor instead of orange.
*** Mercy as Angela had a more hospital/scrubs-looking CombatMedic appearance than the angelic appearance she has now.
** Pharah, like Mercy, was also conceived as male before being changed to female.
** Symmetra was originally white being being changed to Indian.
** Tracer was going to be redhead and had a ScarfOfAsskicking.
** At one point Junkrat was affiliated not with the Junkers but with the Los Muertos gang.
* Widowmaker was originally conceived as having an insect theme. It was changed to a spider theme when they noticed her helmet resembled one.
* Quite a few heroes went through a name change in development. These include:
** Widowmaker = Longshot
** Mercy = Angelica
** Pharah = Mercy, then Rocket Dude, then Rocket Queen
** Genji = Hanzo
** Torbjörn = Ironclad
** Ana = Alchemist
** Sombra = Omniblade
* D.Va most likely spawned from an unused character named Brit. She was a blonde Caucasian that had ''two'' different mechs, for attack and support, based off her very brief description. While this concept was abandoned, it would plant the seeds for what would grow to become D.Va.
* [[https://imgur.com/a/7qY7F Many brief hero concepts were shown]] at the Archives Panel in [=BlizzCon=] 2017, some of which are in the final product, albeit with slight name and ability differences (such as Mercy being named "Angelica" and having a "Teleport", and Winston having a "Flak Cannon" with "Leap" and "Pound" as two distinct abilities).
** The same panel also showed several map proposals, which seems to have been developed before Hybrid maps came to be. Some are mostly visually different to their final product such as London and Numbani, some contain similar aesthetics found in final maps such as Berlin instead of Eichenwalde and Cairo instead of Anubis (which was then a Payload map), and others are new locations entirely, including "Amazon", "The Bayou", "San Joaquin", and "The Iris".
* Shortly after Moira's announcement at Blizzcon 2017, [[https://imgur.com/a/N5JIi early concept art was shown in the "What's Next" panel]], having gone through many design iterations for a "morally ambiguous" support. Some of her first designs already heavily resembled the final product, but before settling on her current weapon, she wielded CombatTentacles (which the devs liked and made for an interesting silhouette, but they couldn't figure out how to properly integrate them into her gameplay) and a more conventional "spray-cannon" resembling a [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 Medi Gun]] (which started introducing more of Moira's MadScientist vibe but made her silhouette more easily confused with Zarya).
* While in the process for reworking Hanzo, [[https://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20761687047#post-9 Geoff Goodman]] shared several ideas they had experimented with, but didn't really work for various reasons. Among them are a ''Piercing Arrow'' that would replace ''Scatter Arrow'', which was a more "snipey" ability that could go through barriers, and an ability bound to his reload key that would instantly reset his cooldowns.
* During development, Mercy's age was placed at 34, before being bumped up to 37. Conversely, Brigitte's initial stated age was 28, but this was bumped down to 23, making her the second-youngest human hero before D.Va.

* Ashe, as detailed shortly after her reveal at Blizzcon 2018, went through several design changes in the "What's Next?" panel:
** Ashe was originally conceived for ''Reunion'' before everyone on the dev team became a fan and [[PromotedToPlayable decided to make her playable]], though this reportedly almost didn't happen as everyone was adamant on having B.O.B. be a part of her kit since day 1, presenting no shortage of performance concerns (which were incidentally solved in part by B.O.B.'s design being almost perfectly symmetrical).
** [[https://imgur.com/a/3afnH8B Her very first concept]] gave her a long black duster, longer white hair (which was made shorter due to technical issues), and red highlights, but was deemed too "Gothic" (more appropriate for a vampire hunter than a cowboy) and overall too similar to Reaper. [[https://imgur.com/a/c9ovyuI Their "exploration" phase]] came up with additional designs that were also for one reason or another rejected, including a darker-skinned, black-haired variant that was shelved for looking too similar to [=McCree=].
** [[https://imgur.com/a/g9dVbnv B.O.B. was mostly unchanged from his original concept design]], though according to Michael Chu, he didn't originally have [[DastardlyDapperDerby his tiny hat]], nor was he [[BattleButler Ashe's butler]] until later on in development and he became a fan of the aesthetic.

* The IGN video series [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huS4_V4e3h0 "6 Secrets]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzbNZCISJVU about Overwatch's]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLRSsg-gkVw Heroes by]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgdjeEBPRNM Jeff Kaplan"]] gave some development tidbits and backstories of various heroes:

** Sombra's stealth ability was originally a passive that would activate when she was out of combat. It fell through after the dev team kept tweaking how long it would take before she'd fall under stealth, at one point instantly, making her "pretty much a nightmare."

* According to [[https://www.twitch.tv/videos/278653958 a streamed interview between Geoff Goodman and A_Seagull]] (starting around 36:10), Wrecking Ball was a conceptualized early on, but had its development put on hold until they decided the time was right. One of the many initially-conceived concepts was a "junkyard magnet bot" who had all sorts of [[MagnetismManipulation magnetic abilities]], being able to pull bullets towards him, tank them, and reflect them back.

** [[http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/304/158/ff0.jpg One of Mercy's earlier designs]] was originally a black man (with white hair) with red accents on his armor instead of orange. He was also going to have a romantic relationship with Genji. This meant Genji was originally intended to be gay, but is now portrayed as very much heterosexual. Mercy was changed to a white Swiss female, and instead her and Genji have a ShipTease at the moment.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1_nyoj4_q7zteel9swjcj89w1.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Just imagine how different ''Overwatch'' would've been with ''this'' roster.]]

* According to [[https://www.twitch.tv/videos/278653958 a streamed interview between Geoff Goodman and A_Seagull]] (starting around 36:10), Wrecking Ball was a conceptualized early on, but had its development on hold until they decided the time was right. One of the many initially-conceived concepts was a "junkyard magnet bot" who had all sorts of [[MagnetismManipulation magnetic abilities]], who could pull bullets towards him, tank them, and reflect them back.

** [[https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/geyxsnmsd29igso6lixr.jpg One of Lúcio's iterations]] had -- among other things -- turntables on his hips and pants that would light up alongside his music, though it was toned down for being "too distracting during gameplay." Kaplan has stated [[https://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20755696236#post-2 due to its positive reception, the design may actually still become a skin one day.]]

** Finally, Genji was going to be a melee hero using his sword, similar to Reinhardt. However, Blizzard found this impossible to balance properly, so they instead had him use his Shuriken as his default weapon and made his sword an Ultimate.

* Shortly after Moira's announcement at Blizzcon 2017, [[https://imgur.com/a/N5JIi early concept art was shown in the "What's Next" panel]], having gone through many design iterations for a "morally ambiguous" support. Of note, some of her first designs already heavily resembled the final product, being based on her devil-motif Valkyrie suit seen in her Origin Story and a few of her current sprays. Before settling on her current weapon, she wielded CombatTentacles (which the devs liked and made for an interesting silhouette, but they couldn't figure out how to properly integrate them into her gameplay) and a more conventional "spray-cannon" resembling a [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 Medi Gun]] (which started introducing more of Moira's MadScientist vibe but made her silhouette more easily confused with Zarya).

* A simple, but odd example during the Winter Wonderland 2017 event: [[https://i.imgur.com/fYzI4DX.jpg as shown on an official ad from the game's Instagram account, Bastion and Sombra were apparently supposed to have their own event-exclusive "Toast" victory poses with drinks]], though for whatever reason, they're unavailable in-game.

* D.Va originally had a cat motif, but this was later changed to a bunny to better suit her ability to fly, or "Hop" in her mech.

* Shortly after Moira's announcement at Blizzcon 2017, [[https://imgur.com/a/N5JIi early concept art was shown in the "What's Next" panel]], having gone through many design iterations for a "morally ambiguous" support. Of note, one of her designs is more based on her devil-motif Valkyrie suit seen in her Origin Story and a few of her current sprays, and before settling on her current weapon, she wielded a large cannon resembling a [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 Medi Gun]] and even CombatTentacles.

* Some of Overwatch's game assets were originally meant for a class-based shooter/MMO project named ''Titan'' before it was scrapped. [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/comments/5yj2zk/ama_request_jeff_kaplan/dew538g/ Jeff Kaplan stated]] some (but not all) of the heroes were based on different classes:
** Tracer was based on a "Jumper" class who had the same abilities and dual-wielded machine guns. ''Titan'' had a lot of progression and [[CharacterLevel leveling-up systems,]] and the Jumper would've had bonus attributes such as shotguns or knockback, but the system was considered too cluttered and confusing, leading to it being scrapped.
** Reaper was based on a [[ShapedLikeItself "Reaper,"]] who at one point had a crossbow [[https://youtu.be/VgdjeEBPRNM?t=82 and had an ability]] [[InjuredVulnerability to see injured enemies through walls]] that would later be implemented with Sombra.

** Symmetra and Torbjörn evolved from an "Architect" class.
** Genji and Hanzo were both based on an "Assassin" class, which would've made sense, given that they were originally a single character (see below).
** Reinhardt supposedly evolved from a "Juggernaut" class, although according to Jeff, "he is completely different... just the idea of 'big guy with shield' is all that stuck."