Blizzard continues to pour gasoline on its Overwatch 2 dumpster fire

[Cal Jeffrey]

In context: Launches of high-profile games sometimes don't go as planned. Cyberpunk 2077 is a good example. These problematic releases send the developer scrambling to fix things, and usually, they do. However, Blizzard's launch of Overwatch 2 has been a disaster made worse by the developer itself.

On Monday, Blizzard said it was pulling two characters — Torbjörn and Bastion — from some game modes over issues that needed to be fixed. Kotaku noted that players could exploit Bastion to spam his ultimate ability at opponents. Likewise, players could use Torbjörn's Overloaded ability twice in a row.

These serious issues can ruin the game for players going up against these two heroes, and Blizzard was justified in removing them while it worked on a fix. However, about one-third of the other heroes got locked after disabling these two characters. Initially, some players complained of losing access to up to half of the heroes, but reports could have been exaggerated.

bastion buff in OW2 is wild pic.twitter.com/UXuwP4oIoU

— Brandon Larned (@A_Seagull) October 8, 2022

At least 12 heroes became inaccessible to players who had unlocked them, including Doomfist, Sigma, Wrecking Ball, Ashe, Echo, Mei, Sombra, Symmetra, Zenyatta, Kiriko, Baptiste, and Brigitte. Players reported that restarting the game and rebooting their consoles didn't fix the problem.

Of course, this caused indignant outrage across the Twitterverse, with angry players spouting off on Blizzard to give them back their characters. The problem persisted until Blizzard shut the entire game down late last night for "emergency maintenance." It was back online by about 12 pm EDT with the roster restored.

"The team is aware of a new issue that prevents players from accessing all their owned heroes," Blizzard notified players in a forum post regarding known bugs. "This is caused by an issue with our servers that tracks player progression. We are working to get this issue resolved as quickly as possible."

Locked out of 18 of the roster in Overwatch 2 after buying the watchpoint pack to unlock them all. Sigh. pic.twitter.com/ca1BeORBkX

— Tiffany Bunni (@tiffbun) October 11, 2022

The lockout does not appear to be related to the Torbjörn and Bastion removals, but the timing was terrible. After Blizzard acknowledged the issue, it took devs two hours to restore the roster, but players had been complaining about it for more than six hours. These issues are just the latest in a long list of inexcusable fumbles since Overwatch 2 launched a week ago.

First, it was hit with multiple DDoS attacks on launch day, causing players to wait in long queues to get on — that is, if they were lucky enough not to time out or get a login error. Then there was a massive fuss over Overwatch 2's mandatory two-factor authentication system SMS Protect that restricted players with pre-paid phones from starting the game. Then a chat bug started charging players randomly for skins with no confirmation for the purchase. And those are just issues that Blizzard has already fixed.

Perhaps the most infuriating is that it is pretty clear that Blizzard rushed Overwatch 2 out the door before it was ready. This is evident by reading all the "known launch issues" that the QA team pointed out before the game landed in players' download queues. It was a very sloppy release, and Blizzard's efforts to rectify the situation in some cases have created new problems or brought more attention to some of the more serious ones.

There are still plenty of problems that need addressing. Many of them beta testers reported as early as May.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/96279-blizzard-continues-pour-gasoline-overwatch-2-dumpster-fire.html

 

[hahahanoobs]

I'm waiting for the headline that says something has been done to stop the shady practices in game development. Until then I'm just reading these words to pass the time.

 

[terzaerian]

Me watching Blizzard burn itself to the ground:

 

[DSirius]

This is a sneaky Blizzard attempt to test players reaction to locked heroes and having to pay a BattlePass to unlock them. The entire Battlepass is a hidden Pay to Win, and Blizz intend to milk players of 40USD or Euros for every season.
Is not worth the money.
Hope that the trial in California will brings light and a final verdict to those accusations of work discrimination and toxic sexual culture of Blizzard.
BTW great article title, it is telling the essence of the OW2 Blizz drama.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Is it any wonder that I have no interest in games by Blizzard?

 

[waclark]

I would hardly call it a "dumpster" fire. Cyberpunk, on the other hand, yeah, that was shite. You can't blame Blizzard for DDOS attacks, can you?

Outside of this problem, what other problems have their been? I played quite a bit last weekend and didn't run into any problems.

 

[DSirius]

Is it any wonder that I have no interest in games by Blizzard?

Best reaction to Blizz drama.

 

[DSirius]

I would hardly call it a "dumpster" fire. Cyberpunk, on the other hand, yeah, that was shite. You can't blame Blizzard for DDOS attacks, can you?

Outside of this problem, what other problems have their been? I played quite a bit last weekend and didn't run into any problems.

Cyberpunk 2077 is millenia ahead of any Blizz "game", I recommend to play it and you will find a true diamond (gem) hidden beneath, even if was a rough diamond at launch.
I played the "polished" version of CP 2077 with the Nexus mods help, and I can tell you that the gameplay experience is amazing. Even after I finished it, I replayed it many times, because I could find great new content and angles in every gameplay.
If you want some tips (without spoilers) on how to have the best gameplay experience I can gladly share them to you.
P.S. I plan to play a new CP2077 character build soon.
I also recommend to buy games from GOG platform because they are DRM free, and you can download the game kit, and install them without any internet activation.
I buy some games from Steam or others, only if those games are not available on GOG platform.

 

[waclark]

Cyberpunk 2077 is millenia ahead of any Blizz "game", I recommend to play it and you will find a true diamond (gem) hidden beneath, even if was a rough diamond at launch.
I played the "polished" version of CP 2077 with the Nexus mods help, and I can tell you that the gameplay experience is amazing. Even after I finished it, I replayed it many times, because I could find great new content and angles in every gameplay.
If you want some tips (without spoilers) on how to have the best gameplay experience I can gladly share them to you.
P.S. I plan to play a new CP2077 character build soon.
I also recommend to buy games from GOG platform because they are DRM free, and you can download the game kit and, after, install them even without internet activation.
I buy some games from Steam or others, only if those games are not available on GOG platform.

I was referring to its initial launch which did not go well. I certainly hope it's not having those issues still.

But mostly, OW2 has gone pretty well, with the exception of the DDOS attack, which really isn't Blizzard's fault. Other than this report, I haven't heard or seen any show-stopper bugs in the game.

 

[DSirius]

I was referring to its initial launch which did not go well. I certainly hope it's not having those issues still.

But mostly, OW2 has gone pretty well, with the exception of the DDOS attack, which really isn't Blizzard's fault. Other than this report, I haven't heard or seen any show-stopper bugs in the game.

There are some light annoying bugs, like enemies not taking damage because they appear half inside walls when they are pinned or stick to walls, and many like this, and there are some bugs which broke the game.
OW2 has the potential to be a great game, clearly better than OW1, but is sabotaged and plagued by Blizz execs business vision.
I play OW2 and my conclusion is that this new "free" version is definitely pay to play for new heroes, and play to win any hero, because those who pay Battlepass get new heroes unlocked, and also get more 20% XP points for playing. And Blizz plan is to milk players with many expensive seasons Battlepass.
Any product which claim being a "game" but in fact is a pay to play, or pay to win, is not really a game or at least one which you can enjoy, because is trading the joy of accomplishing something for the money.
And many who paid for Battlepass are enraged now because they got like half heroes locked, due to a Blizz "mistake".
A mistake is when players and customers get more, nice benefits than usual, like if Blizz would have displayed 10 USD or euro price for the Battle pass instead of 40.
Strange that Blizz makes "mistakes" always and only in players and buyers disadvantage.
But Blizz can follow the good example of CD Poject Red with CP 2077 and refund the money to dissatisfied buyers, no question asked, for this subpar quality and unfinished product or lower the price to the real value of 10 USD.
I bought OW1 discounted, together with other 9 games, for 12.5 Euro from Humble Bundle, and 10 Euro may be the fair price for OW2 Battlepass, not worth anything above.
And also to sell it for 5 USD promotions, periodically
Otherwise I will not pay for it and will play it rarely, to make an informed opinion about it's improvements (or not) in time.

 

[Nobina]

I was referring to its initial launch which did not go well. I certainly hope it's not having those issues still.

But mostly, OW2 has gone pretty well, with the exception of the DDOS attack, which really isn't Blizzard's fault. Other than this report, I haven't heard or seen any show-stopper bugs in the game.

The launch of OW is not really a launch when it's the same game with an update, more like they just turned the lights on.

 

[gamerk2]

I would like to remind everyone most of Blizzards old execs are gone; it's all Activision now.

 

[DSirius]

I would like to remind everyone most of Blizzards old execs are gone; it's all Activision now.

You are right, Activision is the perpetrator and its infamous CEO Bobby Kotick. It's Activision wrongdoings, and Blizz followed them as accomplices, though Blizz could chose to leave from this toxic merge as Bungie did. It seems that they could not leave as Bungie, so Blizz personal had to leave one by one, or was fired by Activision which impose their hideous bossiness model.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

This is a sneaky Blizzard attempt to test players reaction to locked heroes and having to pay a BattlePass to unlock them. The entire Battlepass is a hidden Pay to Win, and Blizz intend to milk players of 40USD or Euros for every season.
Is not worth the money.
Hope that the trial in California will brings light and a final verdict to those accusations of work discrimination and toxic sexual culture of Blizzard.
BTW great article title, it is telling the essence of the OW2 Blizz drama.

Got bad news for ya: like 99.9% of these "sexual culture" cases, it will either get dismissed or be found to be shaky at best, utterly wrong at worst. Just look at some of the complaints, they seem to be utterly ridiculous. Usually means lies are afoot. Realistically, it is extremely unlikely that years of frat-tier drinking and assault games were going on with 0 leaks to social media.

 

[DSirius]

Got bad news for ya: like 99.9% of these "sexual culture" cases, it will either get dismissed or be found to be shaky at best, utterly wrong at worst. Just look at some of the complaints, they seem to be utterly ridiculous. Usually means lies are afoot. Realistically, it is extremely unlikely that years of frat-tier drinking and assault games were going on with 0 leaks to social media.

True, just that in this California against Activision case, an Activision women employee suicide herself due to an Activision exec constraining her to have a sex relationship with him. After that, he sent nude pics with her to his exec colegues. And there are more awful things like this discovered by prosecutors.
CEO Bobby Kotick is also involved in this investigation, though he desperately tries to hide this from public.
But I see your point, together with prosecutors, Activision will find an obscure exec as a scapegoat to blame all wrongdoings on him, will pay some money as fine hoping to evade the laws.
Epstein pedophile case is a loud testament to how laws and justice is applied to billionaires. They sacrificed pedophile Epstein, so all his billionaires accomplices friends to escape accusations. And I have to remind that Bill Gates was a close buddy with pedohile Epstein.
Appologies if this may be little far away from topic.

 

[hahahanoobs]

I would hardly call it a "dumpster" fire. Cyberpunk, on the other hand, yeah, that was shite. You can't blame Blizzard for DDOS attacks, can you?

Outside of this problem, what other problems have their been? I played quite a bit last weekend and didn't run into any problems.

Probably the last three paragraphs. That's what triggered me to comment anyway.

 

[kira setsu]

Blizzard doesnt care, gamers are playing the game like its crack covered hotcakes.

until players quit flocking to games(especially f2p ones) like moths to flames then nothing will change.

 

[waclark]

The launch of OW is not really a launch when it's the same game with an update, more like they just turned the lights on.

Well, that's true in a way, though clearly some things have changed. But yeah, it's not so much a launch as a DLC update.

 

[waclark]

Probably the last three paragraphs. That's what triggered me to comment anyway.

I haven't run into any of those problems, but I don't play 7x24 either. And yeah, taking a 2 whole hours to fix a bug, well that's just downright criminal!

I think "dumpster" fire is a bit over the top.

 

[Bamda]

Glad I never got into playing this game. So no loss there for me.