Overwatch 2 - Releases October 4th - Make sure to confirm your OW1 accounts for merging before October 2nd!

[Wraith]

8 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

I frankly want better game balancing. Ever since they got rid of the skill level requirements, match-making has been a complete and total shitshow in every aspect. As a gold border player with so many hours on the game, I absolutely should not be getting matched with people who are under level 50. Not to mention that team balancing is often quite often than not - a complete shambles. I've had tons upon tons of matches where there were silver to platinum border players all all matched into the enemy team, while my team has all bronze border players.

They decided to get rid of the skill-based matchmaking to get faster queue times, but idk man. When the matches have degraded so utterly horrendously in quality as a result, it's not particularly good.

I agree with this, but part of this ties into the low population stuff I talked about earlier. There's not really a good fix for it until the game gets an influx of new players somehow.

There's rumors of the game going free to play. There's been understandable pushback on that from the community but honestly it might be the only way to secure a consistent playerbase going forward.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

1 minute ago, Wraith said:

There's rumors of the game going free to play. There's been understandable pushback on that from the community but honestly it might be the only way to secure a consistent playerbase going forward.

It depends on how they do it IMO. If it's just like a Team Fortress 2 F2P situation where the whole game is available with no problems, I think that would be great, especially since it would make Overwatch infinitely more accessible for things like Game Nights and such. But I don't want them to start fundamentally pulling shit like other games of this sort where they lock off the heroes and demand you to unlock them. I think Heroes of the Storm had such a system, and in a game like Overwatch where it's so heavily reliant on hero flexibility and countering other choices. If you were locked to certain heroes, it'd IMO - be a total nightmare, especially if balance changes ended up screwing with someone you did have, and you learnt.

I do feel like Overwatch is eventually going to have to go Free to Play at this rate. Even OW1's client as I said could do with some kind of fresh coat of paint. As much as I know they're putting all developmental efforts towards OW2, I'd still like them to take some time both porting the engine over to PS5/Series X (even if it's either OW1 or OW2's engine, but as we know - OW1's client will be merged into OW2, so getting it onto next-gen consoles would both be good future-proofing, and a good way to freshen things up). On top of Free to Play, the biggest thing IMO would be cross-play. COD's been implementing it for awhile, and it's done a fairly decent job by letting the player decide if they want all-around cross-play (IE - playing with console and PC players), or if they want it to be solely console-based (PS5/Series X, etc). That would certainly help bolster the playbase too.

[Wraith]

3 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

It depends on how they do it IMO. If it's just like a Team Fortress 2 F2P situation where the whole game is available with no problems, I think that would be great, especially since it would make Overwatch infinitely more accessible for things like Game Nights and such. But I don't want them to start fundamentally pulling shit like other games of this sort where they lock off the heroes and demand you to unlock them. I think Heroes of the Storm had such a system, and in a game like Overwatch where it's so heavily reliant on hero flexibility and countering other choices. If you were locked to certain heroes, it'd IMO - be a total nightmare, especially if balance changes ended up screwing with someone you did have, and you learnt.

I do feel like Overwatch is eventually going to have to go Free to Play at this rate. Even OW1's client as I said could do with some kind of fresh coat of paint. As much as I know they're putting all developmental efforts towards OW2, I'd still like them to take some time both porting the engine over to PS5/Series X (even if it's either OW1 or OW2's engine, but as we know - OW1's client will be merged into OW2, so getting it onto next-gen consoles would both be good future-proofing, and a good way to freshen things up). On top of Free to Play, the biggest thing IMO would be cross-play. COD's been implementing it for awhile, and it's done a fairly decent job by letting the player decide if they want all-around cross-play (IE - playing with console and PC players), or if they want it to be solely console-based (PS5/Series X, etc). That would certainly help bolster the playbase too.

Crossplay is something the community has been pushing for even earlier than the other stuff we've talked about and I'm surprised it hasn't happened already. Even just enabling cross console would alleviate issues with player counts by a lot.

In addition to all this, I just can't see Overwatch continuing to be competitive with a 60 dollar price point at this juncture. If I want to just boot up a shooter with my friends there are too many free options to choose from. A lot of OW content creators I play moved to either Valorant or Apex instead, and it's because both games are super active. New content is more frequent and the developers put a lot more care into balancing to make sure nothing is game breaking. It costs nothing to try for yourself, meaning player counts are always high.  Halo Infinite's completely free Multiplayer is going to beat OW2 to the market too, making things dicier. A huge barrier of entry for Overwatch 2 when a lot people don't trust the brand anymore is only going to cause problems.

 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

New details from the PvP Anniversary Stream:

• 5v5 will be the team format in OW2 instead of 6v6. Two supports, two DPS, one tank.
• New York shown off, hybrid map.
• Rein charge cancel seems to be here to stay
• Zen has a new UI that shows specifically who he has his Orb of Harmony and Orb of Discord on.
• Push gamemode showed off again.
• Over-shields and over-armour gone, instead consolidated into a general "overhealth" category on top of your health.
• All Support players now get health-regen
• Mercy gets stronger health regen
• Move speed increased for tanks
• Mei and Winston have ability changes - Mei can't freeze enemies any longer, she slows them down and does more damage. Winston has an alt fire that lets him fire a weaker, but far longer beam.
• Crowd Control is getting looked at across the board
• Rio is shown off
• Defence starts off in Lucio's home and club. It's a community centre/club
• Torb's OW2 design is shown off
• Rome is shown off - its a Push map
• Final map - Monte Carlo - filled with yachts, luxury hotels, and casinos, and it has a story connection to OW2 - payload map.
• Monte Carlo is an open map filled with elevation 
• New UI when Mercy is healing a player, showing you Mercy's position and condition
• Nearly 200 people working on OW2 compared to OW1's 60-70 person team
• Mercy has new UI to show who she's healing with an icon,

[Ryannumber1gamer]

CROSS-PLAY CONFIRMED

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

So uh…

https://kotaku.com/overwatch-2s-boss-is-quitting-blizzard-for-some-time-o-1847719663?rev=1632266860879&utm_campaign=Kotaku&utm_content=1632267257&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_source=twitter

this is happening in the midst of Acti Blizz getting investigated by the SEC, several other peeps leaving the company and we’re supposed to be getting more info on this game on Sept 25th.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

5 hours ago, Ellipsis-Ultima said:

So uh…

https://kotaku.com/overwatch-2s-boss-is-quitting-blizzard-for-some-time-o-1847719663?rev=1632266860879&utm_campaign=Kotaku&utm_content=1632267257&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_source=twitter

this is happening in the midst of Acti Blizz getting investigated by the SEC, several other peeps leaving the company and we’re supposed to be getting more info on this game on Sept 25th.

This could be the beginning of a great exodus. Hopefully a sign of consequence that is to come for the company.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

Blizzard has pretty much decimated it's reputation. Everything they've worked on and worked for is basically going up in smoke.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Game was showcased at Xbox’s showcase. OW2 is going free to play on October 4th, as a part of an early access program. OW1 players will get a Founders’ Pack, along with all their unlocks and such from OW1 carrying over.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

New details from Reveal Event:

• Beta starting June 28th, available on PS, Xbox, and PC - sign-ups start today.
• New content roadmap:

• Dev team acknowledges that OW1 has been in a awful state for ages and wish to avoid that with Overwatch 2, attempting to take a structured monthly drop instead - specifically mentioned that a hero will be dropped every other season, and a new map will be added inbetween hero drops.
• A Battle Pass is being introduced
• Loot Boxes are being removed altogether
• Mystic Skins will be added to the game - new tier above Legendary, they're customizable when you get them.
• New cosmetic items such as banners, weapon charms, and more will be added
• A new Portuguese Map is present.
• PvE will begin release in 2023, it seems it will now take a structure similar to Mann VS Machine, with new PvE maps and content being added (Not confirmed, but possible).
• New PvE map featuring Torb's home town, will allow you to explore his factory.
• Game's plot will focus in on Overwatch coming back together, with old members requiring the help of the younger members.
• The game's theme is essentially a glob-trotting adventure.
• Junker Queen will be playable in the new beta
• New Junker Queen origin story:

• New Junker Queen animated short - The Wastelander:

 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Lots of updates to go through.

First things first, the original game is shutting down on October 2nd, while Overwatch 2's PvP will launch on October 4th as a free to play game.

If you're a returning player, you'll have some legwork to do to ensure your cosmetics and accounts carry over to Overwatch 2. The game will feature cross-progression as one account, so you need to go into all of your accounts on every console, and confirm you wish to link that account for a merger. 

You can have one account per platform merged (IE - One on PS, one on Xbox, one on Switch, one on PC), and when you do so, all of your cosmetics, items, stats, and so on, so forth will be merged together. To do so, start the game up, go to Account Merge on the main menu, and confirm your account, and you're all set.

Secondly, we have our third newcomer for Overwatch 2 - a support hero named Kiriko:

Thirdly, we have the trailer for Season 1, revealing the Battle Pass, some new cosmetics, and a seemingly brand new Halloween event that might be our first glimpse into the revamped PvE system for OW2, featuring Kiriko, Junkerqueen, Ana, and Ashe as the heroes: 

This also brings the game's new progression system into play - all players will get Junkerqueen and Sojurn, while Kiriko will be given free to OW1 players, and otherwise, they'll either need unlocked via the free BP, unlocked instantly via the premium BP, or via a mission following their introductory season. As such, new heroes will not be available in comp until two weeks post-release. 

Lastly, we have the brand-new starter system, which is designed to combat smurf accounts, and gradually introduce new players to the game. Over the course of 100 matches, new players will be gaining access to new heroes and new modes continually, helping get them up to speed on the game, and get to grips with things before they get into the competitive scene: