In many games, developers usually offer gamers a chance to replay some of their previous matches so that they can get an idea of what went wrong. Alternatively you could even watch replays of other players so that you can learn how the pros play, pick up some tips and tricks and what not.Unfortunately for Overwatch gamers, it seems that replays and spectator mode won’t be coming anytime soon. In a post by the game’s director Jeff Kaplan on the Overwatch forums, he states that while these are features that Blizzard has been working on, they have been temporarily halted as they are focusing on other aspects of the game.
According to Kaplan, “Both have been on our schedule for some time but have gotten bumped for different reasons. The same people who would work on those features ended up being re-prioritized to working on high bandwith [sic] server technology, Season 2 competitive mode changes and matchmaking improvements. We also have another feature request in front of the replay system — the ability to save highlights. Some of the work here is a step towards replays (another top requested feature) so it makes sense for this to come first when the time comes.”
This does not mean that the features won’t be coming. Instead gamers should probably not hold their breaths as it sounds like Blizzard is focusing on other parts of the game first before moving onto these features, so you’ll just remain patient until then. Alternatively you could always tune into gamers who livestream their matches, which we guess is almost like a spectate-only mode.