Overwatch Director Admits Dev Team Has Let Down The Game's Community

Apologies of sorts are the new marketing strat I think

The best apology is releasing a good game with no strings attached.

@AnnoyingFrenzy I think acknowledging problems is a big and much appreciated step as well.

So long as they start improving how they handle things from now on, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Overwatch is my most-played game on Switch with about 2300 hours logged. I want to see this game improve because it's fun and I love playing it with my friends.

Compared to the first game. There isn't any hype for this.

I’m not sure I could face buying a Blizzard product again. Despite having put thousands of hours into Overwatch over the years. Shame for the devs who aren’t absolute scum but too much stuff came out to be swept under the carpet.

Overwatch is dead to me.

I want to believe, but we've heard the same line every time before. "Sorry we haven't said much, we'll be more communicative in the future", followed by silence for at least half a year, then repeat. It's been like this since OW 2 was revealed late 2019. That's 2 and a half years of this, now.

Keller was looking real tired in the video. I'm sure the whole team is. Still, it was their decision to all but abandon OW1 for OW2. The dead wait would be bad enough, but by refusing to give even minor updates they're really shooting themselves in the foot.

@NinChocolate I agree, but don't think it's new. South Park did an episode about it a decade ago.

Overwatch and Fortnite are two of the four horsemen but who are the other two? They have to be new IPs released within the last ten years or so that inflected terrible trends onto gaming, I’d pick Destiny for numerous reasons but the biggest one would be inspiring developers to use cursor based for menus in console game which has been one of the biggest UX failures of the modern era.

Hey, I'm glad they at least say sorry to a community waiting for this game, on top of all the crazy stuff to go down. It better then other devs almost acting like there community didn't even exist.

The fact that they are taking longer isn't really worth an apology, but if they make people pay for a poor product it would.

It's such a shame that a game so fun, addictive, charming, and creative as overwatch got stuck with such.... problematic people. Idk if I could ever forgive myself for buying another Blizzard product. Yeah I know Microsoft owns it now but the people who did the terrible stuff is STILL getting the money

@iLikeUrAttitude In most cases yes, absolutely, like addiction for example. I'm not convinced though that Blizzard is fixing the problems they are acknowledging.

@PBandSmelly
You won't have to worry for much longer. Bobby Kotick and the people who were being abusive within the company are being kicked out once the merge is complete. You can now enjoy Blizzard games morally again.

I still return to Overwatch now and then and I can say it is the best multiplayer experience ive ever had. I’m more than ready for new content. This game deserves better.

@MsJubilee I agree, I think the ship has sailed unless the changes and improvements are revolutionary in some way.

All they were supposedly doing was release Mann vs Machine as a separate game and apparently they can't even do that.
Blizzard has been dead for a while. Now it's a Frankenstein monster.

It's crazy to see what Blizzard, the company that turned everything it touched into gold, has become in recent years.

@JR150 You sure about that?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/esports/bobby-kotick-will-remain-as-activision-blizzard-ceo-during-microsoft-merger-despite-controversy/ar-AASUanY

@PtM What do you mean? That people who buy into GaaS feel entitled to what they are promised?

Games as a SERVICE.

The deluge on constant stories that come out about Blizzard - sexual misconduct, insider trading (Kotick and Barry Diller), paying employees slave wages - all of the fans who continue to purchase their games are 100% complicit in their actions. They know Activision cannot stop acting in immoral activity and yet they can't face their addictions in a meaningful way and just stop.

It is so exhausting listening to gamers who wag their fingers but cannot stop taking part in Activision's illicit activities. You deserve each other.

@Spiders That's old news. The day after that they backed off that announcement.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2022-01-19-kotick-expected-to-leave-activision-blizzard-after-microsoft-deal-closes

As far as I'm concerned, until Kotick is shown the door, I’m not interested in Overwatch 2. Yes, the plan is for him to leave when the Microsoft stuff is finalized, but until he’s physically gone I’m not purchasing anything from Blizzard.

Since article asks, no I'm not looking forward to it. Lost a lot of goodwill for them after they banned the use of the ok sign.

@JR150 What's your username on OW?

@m0i
Jmaster49

Hope you have fun with me out there!

@JR150 Gonna keep an eye out, my name is mari0wana.

I can understand where people are coming from Boycotting Blizzard until the 2023 transition to Microsoft is finished, but try to understand you guys, there are still innocent people who love the work that they do and this work pays their bills as well. When Microsoft announced that they’ll officially own Blizzard next year it gave me better relief to play this game again. Granted, there are some things that need to still be address, I.E. fair matchmaking, game balancing, and handling toxicity from other players. I glad that they at least admitted that they have been slacking, but none of this would have happened if Blizzard would check their bad behavior at the door from the beginning. It’s been going on 5+ years playing OW1 and we’ve had little to no updates on the sequel. Of course we’re all upset! IMO, they should have went the Fortnite route and gradually updated and evolved their game. A battle pass system like Fortnite and COD would have been nice too to keep the game worth playing. But that’s my rant on this whole thing.

Just goes to show how important strong leadership is and why all companies should incentivise when a good leader indicates departure.

@MostHandsieBoy Blizzard employees have straight up said that boycotting and not supporting the company isn't helpful to the thousands of good workers there.

I am not complicit with the actions at Blizzard but I do love their products and I will buy OW2.

This is like saying you are complicit with child labour because your switch chips were made in a labour camp (which I'm pretty sure came out a while back). Bad stuff is everywhere.

OW was really one of those series that took a nosedive after controversy over controversy. Ironic the devs got ate up alive by the demographic they tried to appeal to as well

I love Overwatch. I have spent so many hours on it. I got much more than what I payed for which is also the case for many others who like to complain about it. Not surprising since the game attracts the most vile disgusting community of people Ive had displeasure of meeting.

@Bret Thanks I must have missed that.

@VexingInsanity complete nonsense rationalization The employees know exactly the harm they are doing and yet they continue. Do they work in a sweatshop? No. Can they make choices? Yes.

They continue. Literally - Screw all of them. And the same everyone who buys any Blizzard product. You are the problem..

I largely stopped caring about of overwatch once it was apparent the narrative wasn’t even going anywhere, despite having never played it myself. While the addition of PvE campaign looks a much needed step in the right direction, it’s unclear yet if it will fully make up for the past years of feet dragging. The sexual misconduct revelations last year haven’t exactly helped either.

@iLikeUrAttitude Nope, it's absolutely useless. Because it's more often than not followed by yet another corporate cash grab of a game. This is neo-Blizzard, not Nintendo. The microtransactions are going to be out of control.

In other words, "Our QA people are abandoning ship like it's full of fire and rats. Won't you fans please do some of our testing for us?"

@BLD to be fair, Blizzard was doing the whole, "Big news soon; in about eight years!" move long before Overwatch was a twinkle in the devs eyes. It's just now they've dropped any pretense of liking or even acknowledging the customers.

Overwatch really fell off for me when Blizzard announced their eSports league. You could then tell that every balance update, every patch, every change was made with the eSports players in mind and not people like me who just like to get on and play some random heroes games, a few quickplay matches a week. Every few weeks characters were changed, things that I learned I had to unlearn and...it just overall became a very work-like experience. I'm honestly more interested in their PvE offerings now because you can't eSports that... hopefully.

@MostHandsieBoy
You are claiming that the thousands of innocent employees that are victims of the terrible culture there are all as terrible as their abusive coworkers and bosses?

And if you knew anything about the lawsuitsz the overwatch team actually had many Devs come out and claim their work environment was actually a nice place to be and it was mainly contained to other teams.

So no the employees that were victims are not the problem. People like me who still play and buy blizzard games are not the problem.

And many many of the employees have been striking in solidarity recently. It is much easier to stand up once you know everybody is behind you. It's difficult alone.

@VexingInsanity Any coder who works for an abusive company in Irvine, CA is complicit. They could take their skills anywhere else. But they chose not to.

@MostHandsieBoy Yeah it's so easy to just quit your job, losing all your income, and just get another job. Because it's a well known fact if you quit your job you are guranteed another one with absolutely everything you want.
The company that employs you if you leave the job you depend on to survive will totally not exploit anybody in the world at all because every company except Blizzard is perfect.

Seriously this is such a stupid take. "just quit your job and get another". People rely on their income. It's what pays their bills.
And the video game industry is notoriously quite difficult to get into. So why should these good people QUIT THEIR JOBS AND LIVELIHOOD BECAUSE THEY WERE ABUSED BY MANAGEMENT.

@VexingInsanity Have you ever been to Irvine, CA on business? I have. You can toss a rock in the air and hit 1000 software development companies when it lands. Right now - every single one of them is hiring. All of them will pay better than Blizzard I bet your eternal soul.

If your initial dream was to be in gaming. that's fine dreams are nice. Anyone will be much happier once they are out of this atrocious industry. It's basically a pyramid scheme but instead of jyst using cogs like most industries in video games they actively hate their employees. I don't say that lightly - they treat them like sweatshop slaves with verbal and physical abuse.