Overwatch 2 faces massive backlash after arriving on Steam: Why is this happening?

Overwatch 2 is currently facing hatred from the global market after its arrival on Steam recently. This negative feedback is coming for various reasons like hatred towards the company and dissatisfaction with the sequel.

Overwatch as a shooter game franchise had a huge fanbase a few years ago, however, the trend died down over time. Most of the decline is due to a lack of attention towards players and countless harassment reports at Activision Blizzard. These alleged misconduct angered netizens and gamers around the globe.

Also, the franchise is not doing good in business as well, and getting less support from higher-ups. With a lot of drama surrounding the critically acclaimed shooter, here’s all you need to know about the downhill journey of the shooter title.

The glory days of Overwatch

Overwatch was released back on May 24, 2016, and captured a vast 10 million strong fanbase in a matter of one month. While shooters like CSGO, Call of Duty, and others existed, this new franchise brought a fresh take on the shooter genre. Keeping the gameplay fun and competitive, it evolved to be one of the biggest genres.

The game had various game modes like Escort, Push, Deathmatch, and a few others that made it enjoyable. However, it was a unique roster of characters from four different classes. These classes contributed in various ways and pushed players to not play with one type of character only. This simple mix between MOBA and shooter made the title unique and set new bars in the shooter genre.

It also provided exciting gameplay while requiring deep strategic knowledge to play the game. This is something fans loved and have kept them around over the years for its unique nature of gameplay. Additionally, due to quick blooming, an original esports league was also founded a year after.

Overwatch League was founded back in 2017 and started its own private esports shooter tournament like other already established franchises like DOTA 2, CSGO, League of Legends, and more. Moreover, the league also managed to host one of the biggest esports tournaments to date with a hefty 3.5 million dollar prize pool.

While things looked great on the surface, the franchise was slowly brewing issues deep within that turned into major problems now. For instance, the lack of attention towards community and promises that Activision Blizzard couldn’t keep.

Issues with the shooter that led to the launch of a sequel

Overwatch had a long-standing toxicity issue that was becoming unbearable for most players. While many might blame human psychology for this, it was the game design that promoted the behavior. For instance, the game was supposed to be a casual shooter, but that turned into a competitive game that pushed regular players to do better.

This try-harder gameplay led many players to get dissatisfied with others’ gameplay and cause abuse. Moreover, the ranked mode in the game was severely unbalanced which created problems of its own.

When a player wins a ranked match, their elo would increase slightly after every win. While if they end up losing, this elo would be lost drastically. As a result, people who took rank seriously ended up toxic because of the endless grind.

Blizzard did “try” to mitigate the toxicity issue in the game, however, they weren’t strict enough. Thus, the toxicity issue stayed as abusers knew actions won’t be taken against them. The only punishment that was given, was a temporary match ban which has almost no impact. Once the ban is lifted, these players could easily come back and start abusing again in the game.

Gameplay-wise the 6v6 format also caused a lot of ruckus and made the game stressful to play. Players could pick three tank characters in one match which made it annoying to play as players had to keep on shooting for a long time.

All these issues were promised to be fixed with Overwatch 2 which was revealed in 2019. However, that promise took a long time to fulfill and ended up disappointing players more.

Steady lawsuits and harassment reports against Activision Blizzard

As development was going on Overwatch and Call of Duty franchises, Activision Blizzard was hit by lawsuits that angered the masses. In 2021, California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, or DFEH raised a complaint against unfair treatment at the company. During the investigation, it was found that female employees were harassed.

The company never took steps to curb or prevent the discrimination faced by their female employees and kept on running the company. Since the company didn’t take care of its employees, the news spread fast and caused people to boycott their games. This resulted in a significant drop in share prices and set the company back.

The Californian lawsuit also reported alleged frat boy culture at the company that led female employees to face unwanted advances. During office parties which were mostly filled by male employees, the female employees would allegedly get derogatory remarks, lewd actions, and sexual harassment.

In February 2023, Activision Blizzard was fined by SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) $35,000,000 as they failed to disclose instances of sexual harassment to investors. Thus, becoming another US agency to legal action against malpractices at the game company.

While the company agreed to pay the fine in full amount, they continued to keep their lips sealed about the harassment. Thus fueling the the two-year-long controversy further and angering people as time passes.

Due to these controversies, the company found itself in deep waters and risked its franchises more. One of the most impacted was Overwatch, which was already in trouble for not serving fans well who paid for the product. Thus, the negative outlook towards the franchise kept on increasing.

The disappointing launch of Overwatch 2

Overwatch 2 was launched as a free-to-play and an upgrade package to their’s predecessor. Upon release, however, these changes made to the sequel weren’t much noticeable and ended up looking like a refurbing of the original game. The only things that changed were some visual changes to characters, some rework, and game balances. All of which could have been done with a significant update to the already existing game.

The “new” game also changed the shooter’s 6v6 model to a 5v5 model which allowed for a more balanced gameplay. Additionally, players were also limited to only two characters from the same class which made it more bearable. However, this left fans with a feeling that the game was made worse. 

However, visually the game didn’t change much and didn’t give a refreshed feeling. It was the same old Overwatch game with few new game modes and updated character looks. A battlepass was also added to the game, which is currently a norm in most online games. 

Many players complained that the second game is worse than the first one. The reason was, patches and game balances were done in slow intervals. Thus, disappointing players even more with its services.

Additionally, Overwatch 2 also required grinding a lot to unlock characters that were launched pre-unlocked for the first time. So new players have to play 100 matches to unlock all these characters. However, according to developers, this was done so that newcomers can get used to the gameplay and try out new characters one by one.

For all these reasons, seasoned players complained about these changes being made and spread mass hatred. Moreover, due to their controversial past, the game faced even more backlash for the smallest of issues.

Also, due to the lack of attention from players, their Overwatch League started to fail and many esports teams left. However, to avoid a bailout, Activision Blizzard started to charge them $6,000,000 in case they do. This was also seen negatively among fans and spread more hatred against the company.

The heavy backlash faced by Overwatch 2 on Steam

Overwatch 2 was recently made available on the Steam store so that players can access their game from one library. However, in a matter of four days, an overwhelmingly large amount of negative reviews piled up about the game.

Many users complained about the game being a cash grab and complained about the broken state of Heroes. Players who have played the game for hours and hours, also stated that the sequel is a downgrade and has an aggressive monetization model.

As mentioned before, new players have to unlock every character by playing multiple matches. Players even complained about this as it denies them from picking any character they want to play in competitive matches. Each character has to ability to counter the other, if players do not have the full roster, they face a certain disadvantage.

Battle.net didn’t allow users to post reviews on the platform, thus players could only voice their dissatisfaction online via blogs. However, as soon as it arrived on Steam, negative comments rushed in and every gamer could see them.

All the allegations towards Activision Blizzard and their internal mismanagement led their franchise to be so hated. However, their paywalled PvE takes the crown as it enrages the public the most. With a of about $15 for almost little to no content, acts as the final nail in the coffin.

Unsatisfactory PvE that needs to be purchased

During the early days of Overwatch, the PvE or story mode of the game was shared with the players free of cost. Thus, players could enjoy both the campaign and the multiplayer experiences for which they have already paid.

During the announcement of Overwatch 2, players were promised a new campaign mode which will be arriving with the free-to-play. Thus, misleading players to believe that the PvE mode will be available for free as well.

However, when the PvE was revealed, it was said that players have to pay $15 to play every mission added to the mode. With a total of three currently available missions, paying $5 for each of them doesn’t make sense. As a result, many complained about Steam by stating multiple AAA games that arrive at that price point.

Additionally, the executive producer has confirmed that new missions won’t be coming until 2024. With that amount of money involved, no one would like to wait a long time for more content. Additionally, it is not confirmed whether they would charge more for other missions in the future as well.

With all these issues surrounding the company, and mismanaged content, Overwatch 2 quickly died down from being a game changer. If you would like to read more content firsthand, do give us a follow. If you want to read more gaming content now, simply click here!