Overwatch 2 Season 15 seems to be taking place nicely, enhancing sentiment round what was as soon as the worst ever user-reviewed recreation on Steam.
We’re now almost 9 years out from the debut of Overwatch in 2016, and two-and-a-half from the launch of Overwatch 2. In August 2023, Overwatch 2 grew to become the worst user-reviewed recreation on Steam ever, with many of the unfavorable evaluations centered on monetization after developer Blizzard was heavily-criticised for forcing its premium predecessor to replace right into a free-to-play sequel, rendering the unique Overwatch unplayable again in 2022.
Overwatch 2 subsequently endured a variety of controversies together with the cancellation of its long-awaited PvE Hero mode — the one function, gamers stated, that justified the sequel’s existence.
However whereas Overwatch 2 nonetheless has a ‘principally unfavorable’ person evaluate score on Steam for all evaluations, latest evaluations have proven an enchancment to ‘blended.’ Which means 43% of the 5,325 person evaluations left within the final 30 days have been optimistic.
That may not sound like a lot to crow about, however for Overwatch 2, which has endured overwhelming negativity since its launch on Valve’s platform, it’s a big milestone.
This enchancment has to do with the latest launch of Season 15, which made a variety of dramatic adjustments to Overwatch 2. Whereas the roadmap forward consists of a lot of what you’d anticipate to see by way of new content material, the core gameplay itself has seen a seismic shift, together with the additions of hero perks and the return of loot bins.
“They simply launched Overwatch 2,” reads one latest optimistic evaluate. “The latest replace is what the sport ought to at all times have been earlier than company greed bought in the way in which.”
“For as soon as, I need to come to Overwatch’s protection and say they actually have stepped up their recreation,” reads one other. “Going again to what labored in Overwatch 1 whereas introducing new and enjoyable mechanics to the sport. A sure recreation made them LOCK IN and I could not be happier. Now we simply gotta watch for subsequent season with an precise cooler battlepass.”
That’s a reference to the vastly well-liked Marvel Rivals, the same aggressive multiplayer hero shooter from NetEase that’s seen 40 million downloads since launching in December.
In a latest interview with GamesRadar, Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller mentioned the brand new actuality Blizzard finds itself in, with Marvel Rivals now out within the wild and attracting tens of tens of millions of gamers.
“We’re clearly in a brand new aggressive panorama that I feel, for Overwatch, we have by no means actually been in earlier than, to this extent the place there’s one other recreation that is so much like the one which we have created,” Keller stated.
You’d assume this is able to be a foul factor for Overwatch, then, however Keller known as the state of affairs “thrilling,” and even stated it was “actually nice” to see Marvel Rivals take concepts established by Overwatch in a “totally different path.”
Nonetheless, Keller admitted Marvel Rivals’ success had compelled a change in perspective inside Blizzard in the case of Overwatch 2, saying: “that is not about taking part in it secure.”
After all, it’s method too early to declare Overwatch “again,” and there’s a push and pull with Overwatch 2’s Steam person evaluations that means it’ll be extraordinarily tough for the sport to enhance upon ‘blended,’ it doesn’t matter what Blizzard does. In the meantime, Season 15 has prompted an uptick in gamers on Valve’s platform, with peak concurrent participant numbers nearly doubling to 60,000. It’s value noting that Overwatch 2 is on the market on Battle.internet, PlayStation, and Xbox, and neither Blizzard, Sony, nor Microsoft make participant numbers publicly out there.
For context, Marvel Rivals, which launched a brand new mid-season replace itself lately, had 305,816 peak concurrent gamers on Steam during the last 24 hours.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You may attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
