Overwatch 2 is finally live, letting players dive in and get to grips with Activision Blizzard’s sequel to its 2016 hit FPS. But has its launch been a success, a big disappointment, or something in-between?
A number of controversies were building up prior to Overwatch 2’s launch, with many skeptical that it would propel the fledgling franchise back to relevancy. Initially revealed as a more PvE-focused experience, Blizzard later confirmed that its new PvE modes wouldn’t be ready in time for release, removing one of the more intriguing aspects of the sequel. Though it switched to free-to-play, this also meant the addition of a purchasable Battle Pass, while many also criticized the lack of changes from the first to the second game.
What has Blizzard said?
Blizzard’s launch day comments have mostly revolved around the teething issues Overwatch 2’s servers have faced. Swiftly following its release, players found themselves in neverending queues, before DDoS attacks caused various outages.
Blizzard President Mike Ybarra said he was “humbled” by players’ excitement for the new game, and that the team was working hard on its server issues:
Game Director Aaron Keller confirmed that OW2 had gone through two DDoS attacks since going online, and that the team were “all hands on deck” to resolve the issue.
With Overwatch 2 players still facing lengthy clues at the time of this writing, Blizzard hasn’t exactly had time to celebrate its launch just yet.
What is the Overwatch 2 community’s reaction?
The Overwatch community was in two minds about Overwatch 2 prior to its launch, and the reaction post-launch has been mixed.
Over on Reddit, most discussion has either inevitably surrounded its server issues, or changes made that the community doesn’t approve of. The ‘unexpected server errors‘ were the subject of many memes, or players lamenting that they couldn’t access the game on launch:
Players criticized the rewards given out for challenges, which award coins that the player can then spend on skins. One of the top-rated posts across its launch day bemoans how they will “have to grind 8 months for one legendary skin” as a result of these rewards.
Another top-rated thread points out the changes made to each character’s description in Overwatch 2, pointing out how they’re a downgrade from the original game — a particularly curious issue, considering that the sequel will eventually feature story-focused PvE missions.
In a popular post calling Overwatch 2’s hero bios “amateurish and embarrassing,” a user compares the changes between OW1 and OW2’s character descriptions:
“Doomfist’s old bio told us his motivations. Doomfist’s gameplay description tells us his motivation. Doomfist’s new bio says “Now, he is determined to plunge the world into a new conflict for his own mysterious purposes.” Its not a mysterious purpose, we’ve known it for years, and if you can scroll up we can see what the purpose is in his gameplay description.
Bastion’s pronouns inexplicably changed from “it” to “he” and Bastion’s base of operations, despite being updated in the lore, is still listed as unknown.
Soldier 76’s page just has a really poor grammatical error that proves no one looked over and reviewed any of this. At the end it says “It is known whether he seeks justice… or revenge.”
Widowmaker’s origin story removes the entire part that makes it an origin story. It just says she disappeared, came back, killed her unnamed husband (Gerard) and then disappeared again.”
A viral video by former Overwatch League pro Brandon “Seagull” Larned also criticized the game, being widely shared among its community. In the video, Seagull expresses his disappointment in the direction Overwatch 2 has taken, and how this follow-up isn’t a “real” sequel:
But above all else, at least the Overwatch 2 server issues allowed this guy to make a new friend:
