Overwatch is one of the most successful video game releases in the past decade. The shooter’s popularity in 2016 was staggering, and it cultivated a fan following of tens of millions of fans and even earned a Game of the Year award at The Game Awards in 2016. Fast Forward to 2023, things are not looking too good for the game and it feels like the game has fallen from grace.
The whole point of Overwatch 2 was the PvE content that we will perhaps never get to see. The game paused all major updates, and we did not receive new heroes or 6v6 maps for a very long time. The PvE was eventually canceled, which makes it feel like the hiatus on updates was all for nothing.
Balance Issues and a Poor Ranked Experience
If we are to look at the game from a balance perspective, it is not the healthiest, but I feel like there have been far worse metas during the early years of Overwatch. With locked roles and a single person in the tank role, there is a lot of pressure on tank players to perform else it can lead to a free loss.
The game was designed around 6v6 combat, and a lot of characters feel like outliers. Widowmaker and Hanzo in particular, can be frustrating to play against, and both the heroes make the absence of a second tank felt.
The game has also done away with the Skill Rating feature, and you will not be able to see the exact MMR that you’re at. The matchmaking can also feel all over the place, and this might be anecdotal, but it feels like the game prioritizes faster matches over actual competitive ones. Even in Diamond lobbies, a lot of my matches feel one-sided in a solo queue.
Monetization Woes
Ever since the release of the game, a lot of players have been claiming that the loot box system was better than what we have right now, and I have to agree with them. I hate loot box mechanics, but Overwatch was one of the few games that got the formula right. You could play the game and get most, if not all, of the skins. It may have been too generous in Blizzard’s eyes, but I feel the current monetization system is just disrespectful toward players.
Battle passes also get heavily criticized, and I feel that the model adopted by Fortnite or Apex Legends is a lot better than what Overwatch offers. You do not get to make back the coins you spend, unlike the aforementioned titles, and you have to keep purchasing the battle pass every season if you want to continue getting all of the new cosmetics, which might turn off a lot of players.
The Removal of PvE Still Stings
Overwatch launched as a PvP game, and the launch of PvE content would not have made a difference to me whatsoever. But there are countless fans out there who grew connected to the game’s characters and wanted more world-building and PvE content. And Blizzard promised to deliver on that front, but it led to nothing but disappointment.
I would have tried out a full-blown PvE version of Overwatch with replayable missions, but things like the Invasion update are just not appealing enough to me. There are plenty of titles out there that release day one as ‘feature complete’ games or are supported by DLCs. I would rather take a Borderlands or Remnant II-style PvE experience than something that is broken into pieces and sold as scraps with a battle pass.
The Other Side of the Review Bombing Controversy: Chinese Users
There is more to the review bombing story than just the disgruntled gamers who are unhappy about the monetization and the cut PVE content. According to Niko Partners’ Director of Research and Insights, Daniel Ahmad, almost two-thirds of the negative reviews on Steam are actually in Spoken Chinese. These reviews not only share the sentiments of the global Overwatch fanbase but also points out other issues, including the removal of Chinese servers, poor connectivity to other servers from China, and the negative impact of the Blizzard Entertainment-Netease fallout.
In March 2023, Niko Partners conducted a survey that tried to highlight the impact of Blizzard’s exit from the country. It was discovered that Overwatch and World of Warcraft are immensely popular in the country and commanded the biggest audience.
Following the games’ absence from the region, over 40% of users expressed an interest in shifting to analogous games from other publishers. Others considered using VPNs to connect to servers outside China, but that does not seem to be working too well. The majority of players in the survey revealed that they are willing to get back to Overwatch if Blizzard reintroduced the game in the country with dedicated Chinese servers.
Does Blizzard Entertainment Have a Defense?
With its unfulfilled promises, monetization woes, balance issues, and other problems, the studio does not really have a defense in the matter. Even outside the game and its problems itself, the Overwatch League (OWL) is yet another talking point. Esports has been all but abandoned, and the esports circuit is likely never to reach its potential. There was a lot of hype around OWL, but it simply failed to be profitable for most franchises invested in it, and Blizzard has all but abandoned it.
But what about the game itself? Is it fun? The answer is a solid “maybe.” Outside of questionable changes to the ranked system, the core gameplay of Overwatch 2 is still fun. While it might not have the same charm as its 6v6 counterpart, the “sequel” is still a fairly enjoyable experience if you are looking for a multiplayer shooter.
In its Q2 Earnings Release, Activision Blizzard revealed that Overwatch 2 has seen a “sequential decline” in Q2 2023 but the launch of the Invasion update is something the publisher is looking forward to.
With Battle.net and console engagement numbers being unavailable to us, it is hard to tell how much of an impact the new update had on the game. More importantly, it is possible that a majority of the playerbase does not actively seek out.
