Overwatch 2 Season 15 seems to be taking place properly, bettering sentiment round what was as soon as the worst ever user-reviewed sport on Steam.
We’re now practically 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 sport on Steam ever, with many of the unfavourable critiques 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 lot of controversies together with the cancellation of its long-awaited PvE Hero mode — the one characteristic, gamers mentioned, that justified the sequel’s existence.
But whereas Overwatch 2 nonetheless has a ‘largely unfavourable’ person evaluate score on Steam for all critiques, latest critiques have proven an enchancment to ‘combined.’ That means 43% of the 5,325 person critiques left within the final 30 days have been constructive.
That won’t 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 lot of dramatic adjustments to Overwatch 2. While the roadmap forward contains a lot of what you’d count on 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 containers.
“They simply launched Overwatch 2,” reads one latest constructive evaluate. “The latest replace is what the sport ought to all the time have been earlier than company greed received in the best way.”
“For as soon as, I have to come to Overwatch’s protection and say they actually have stepped up their sport,” reads one other. “Going again to what labored in Overwatch 1 whereas introducing new and enjoyable mechanics to the sport. A sure sport made them LOCK IN and I could not be happier. Now we simply gotta look ahead to subsequent season with an precise cooler battlepass.”
That’s a reference to the massively well-liked Marvel Rivals, an identical 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 sport that is so just like the one which we have created,” Keller mentioned.
You’d assume this may be a foul factor for Overwatch, then, however Keller known as the state of affairs “thrilling,” and even mentioned it was “actually nice” to see Marvel Rivals take concepts established by Overwatch in a “completely different course.”
Still, Keller admitted Marvel Rivals’ success had compelled a change in angle inside Blizzard in terms of Overwatch 2, saying: “that is not about taking part in it protected.”
Of course, it’s method too early to declare Overwatch “again,” and there’s a push and pull with Overwatch 2’s Steam person critiques that means it’ll be extraordinarily tough for the sport to enhance upon ‘combined,’ it doesn’t matter what Blizzard does. Meanwhile, Season 15 has triggered an uptick in gamers on Valve’s platform, with peak concurrent participant numbers virtually doubling to 60,000. It’s value noting that Overwatch 2 is accessible on Battle.internet, PlayStation, and Xbox, and neither Blizzard, Sony, nor Microsoft make participant numbers publicly accessible.
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 News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
