Jeff Kaplan has revealed in a recent forum post that the development team is currently working on three new maps for competitive shooter Overwatch.
"We currently have 3 maps in development, all past the initial playtesting phase that are 'standard' maps (QP/Comp). While something could always change, all 3 of those are looking likely for a release this year."
This announcement will come as good news to fans of Overwatch, which despite regular content updates has seen surprisingly few new settings included since the game's release. The regular game modes currently have a total of 18 maps, with a variety of additional ones occasionally made available during Overwatch's frequent events.
While Kaplan has in the past talked of one day including a map editor for the community, he has admitted it will be no easy task. The promise of additional settings, however far away they may be, has therefore given many players something to celebrate.
In addition to this auspicious announcement, Jeff Kaplan stated in the same post that even more content is currently in development.
"We also have 3 non-standard maps in development (these won't go in QP/Comp).
We also have a few other experiments going on.
Hopefully this will satisfy some of what you're looking for. We want to play on these maps as badly as you guys do. We'll work as fast as we can!"
Although vague, many already suspect that these will be added in future PVE modes like the currently ongoing Overwatch Uprising event. Other plays are hoping for additional maps for the 3v3 mode, which at the moment only has the one Antarctica setting. As for the rest of the 'other experiments' - only time will tell.
Future news about the game can be found on its forums, or by following Overwatch's official Twitter account.