Overwatch 2 got released on Steam just a few days ago, with the start of the new season 6 Invasion. Now the game is one of the worst rated ones in Steam history.
Overwatch 2 just launched on Steam and well, let's say it didn't get the best reception. But why are fans so furious?
Overwatch 2 Steam Launch – What Happened?
With the release of Season 6 of Overwatch, Blizzard probably thought it would be a good idea to additionally release the game on Steam. This would allow many more players to try out Overwatch for themselves, without having to use the Battle.net launcher. They probably didn't expect to become the worst-rated game on Steam in just a few hours, though.
Only 9% of the over 111K steam reviews think the game is good. All this is pretty fascinating, as it also arouse to the 12th place on the top 100 most-played games list, with around 75 000 players online just today.
The Reactions Are Brutal
The best part about all of this are reviews from the steam users. Many people expressed their many frustrations with the game, but most of them were just plain funny. One comment from user “Conpon” read:
The people who make Overwatch porn work harder than the people who make Overwatch
or another from BerserkSouls:
The only game i can remember that died twice
If you also commented on Steam, you might need this . Thank me later.
Why Did This Happen?
All jokes aside, this terrible reaction has its reasons. When looking at the comments, you can see a clear picture of disappointed fans. It seems like the common denominator of all these reactions is the lack of improvements from Overwatch 1 to 2 – in contrary, players believe the game suffered a severe downgrade.
In summary, players feel like the game has gotten too cash-grabby, especially when it comes to the battle pass: heroes used to be free and are a core gameplay mechanic, with many others and cosmetics hidden behind the paywall too; there is no way to get skins for free.
They are also very disappointed with the PvE in the game, which was supposed to be one of the main new features in OW2, before it got shelved and turned into repetitive and boring content. They expected more story elements than the one they got.
On top of all that, Blizzard is currently having a huge problem in China. As market analyst Daniel Ahmad pointed out on Twitter, around 65% of the negative comments are written in Simplified Chinese.
This is mostly due to Blizzard and NetEase ending their partnership earlier this year, leading to Blizzard's game being shut down in China.
Here's something that no English language media outlet has caught on to: Overwatch 2 currently has 100k reviews on Steam since launching 3 days ago, of which 91% are negative. However, nearly 2/3 of those reviews (63k) are written in S.Chinese, with 97% of them being... https://t.co/sbnSxRdraW
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) August 13, 2023
As Ahmad points out, “gamers in China have been upset over losing their accounts and ability to play on the national server, with no announcement of a return so far” and the Steam launch is “the first time that gamers can vent on an open and international platform.”
Blizzard's Response
The gaming giant's director Aaron Keller has responded. In a recently published blog post, the game director had some words for all the bad reviews.
We also launched on Steam last week, and, although being review-bombed isn't a fun experience, it's been great to see lots of new players jump into Overwatch 2 for the first time. [...]Many of the reviews on Steam mention the cancellation of the much larger component of PvE that was announced in 2019 as one of their primary reasons for dissatisfaction with the game. I get that. That announcement was about an ambitious project that we ultimately couldn't deliver.
The developer realized, that they made some bad decisions and promised some things they couldn't keep. In the same article, Aaron Keller made some more promises. He wants the game to develop and be the best it can be.
We can keep adding to and improving Overwatch 2. That is how we move forward. This means more maps, heroes, game modes, missions, stories, events, cool cosmetics, and features - an ever-expanding, evolving, and improving game. This is the future of Overwatch. One where we will continually create and innovate on what is making the game great now for the players who are playing now.
Sounds good! Adding new content, keeping up the development of the game to grow it playerwise and financially. Does that convince the community? To keep it short: No.
One user said: “It’s just a repeat of the same old broken record. “We messed up, but the future will be better” Winkyface. He got 81 likes for that, with that one of the most liked posts in the official Overwatch blog. The status of the game looks good, eh.
Another user wrote: “Didn't address any issues with the game, just pretends that everything is great”. Yeah, that's not great either.
The comments of the blog post are almost as positive as their steam reviews, smh...
Talking about steam reviews, another comment accumulating 80 likes said:
yet another directors take that makes no mention of addressing just how poorly they have treated their customers…those review bombs Aaron are there for a reason…
Let's be nice and say: The community isn't as optimistic as game director Aaron Keller. It pretty much seems like the Overwatch developers have lost their fan base. To get them back, the developers need to keep their promises, listen to the communities wishes and problems and finally make a game that is fun to play for hours on end. Let's hope they don't mess it up again.
