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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Overwatch 2 debuted on Steam last week and was immediately hit with so many negative user reviews that it's now the lowest-scoring game on the platform.

Right now, Blizzard's first PC release outside the Battle.net launcher has over 140,000 Steam reviews, which Steam summarizes as "Overwhelmingly Negative". While there are plenty of users criticizing the FPS for understandable reasons, many of the reviewers are simply there to add memes and ASCII art to the pile.

In a blog post reflecting on the release of its newest season. Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller said, "although being review-bombed isn't a fun experience, it's been great to see lots of new players jump into Overwatch 2 for the first time."

"Many of the reviews on Steam mention the cancellation of the much larger component of PvE that was announced in 2019 as one of their primary reasons for dissatisfaction with the game," he continued. "I get that. That announcement was about an ambitious project that we ultimately couldn't deliver.

"If we can’t turn back the clock, then what can we do? We can keep adding to and improving Overwatch 2."

Keller said they will move forward and "continually create and innovate on what is making the game great now for the players who are playing now."

Overwatch 2 currently peaks around 50,000 Steam players daily, according to SteamDB, with the highest peak of 75,000 on the day of its release. Despite the early onslaught of negative reviews, the free-to-play game was Steam's seventh top seller (by revenue) that week. Players must have been dropping money on its $15 PvE mission pack or its premium battle pass to get it that high. However, it's since sunk down to 63rd place.

The Steam reviews prompted fans of the game to start a Twitter campaign in support of Overwatch 2's developers with the hashtag #OWDevAppreciation2023. Many players and Overwatch developers shared stories and clips about their relationship to the game, including Keller, who thanked the community for starting it.

Overwatch 2 director opens up about having the worst-reviewed game on Steam: 'Being review-bombed isn't a fun experience'

Aaron Keller pledged to improve the game for "players who are playing now."

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Ryuji Goda]

Review bombing

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Quick, turn another few characters gay! That will fix the problem!

 

[Fuz]

Review bombing

It's always review bombing when we don't like it!

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Good

Hated the first game especially it's fanbase

 

[X-Wing]

Quick, turn another few characters gay! That will fix the problem!

Careful, your fragilities are showing.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Poor OW2

 

[Salz01]

I don’t want to sound dramatic. But fuck Blizzard. They aren’t the same company anymore. Overwatch died when Kaplan left. Everybody knows it. Having a shitty PVE mode when they went back and forth on it, is just salt in the wounds.

 

[Revolutionary]

 

[Dthomp]

As a consumer, being treated like an ATM is also something of a "Bad Experience"

 

[The Fuzz damn you!]

“Being review-bombed isn’t a fun experience.”

By all accounts, neither is playing Overwatch 2.

 

[STARSBarry]

Careful, your fragilities are showing.

They should turn bastion non-binary to confuse all the robosexuals.

 

[RainblowDash]

Too bad

 

[Fake]

We need to check IGN first because they decide what determine a review bombing or not.

 

[Bridges]

It's always review bombing when we don't like it!

In fairness, OW2 is far from the worst game on Steam, it doesn't deserve to be the worst rated.

I think both can be true that many people have legitimate problems with the game and leave negative reviews, but also other people are review bombing

 

[belteshazzar]

F that guy, f OW and f ActiBlizzard. No sympathy from me. They deserve all the negativity aimed at them and the game. Hopefully this is a wakeup call, but they probably will just play the victim and blame everything but themselves. I have like 500 hours on the game between PC and Switch, I really loved the game... But oh well, plenty of other games to play

 

[Interfectum]

Fuck Blizzard. Put WC3 Reforged on Steam next for some glorious ’review bombs’

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

Review bombed? On steam you can only give a review when you have certified gotten the game an put play time to it.

How about your game is fucking dog shit

 

[TransTrender]

Pfft, not my director, pussy
Jeff Kaplan was the last director of Overwatch and he gone

 

[March Climber]

There was no need to make a comment. Learn how to just take a hit on the chin, improve your team’s workflow under a lower budget, and just work on the next patch or next game.

 

[Gandih42]

While I don't blame the individual devs for the decisions of people above then, the game was made intentionally with monetization most people find exploitative, and is filled with broken promises.

I'd say they knew what they were doing and are banking on it being more profitable in spite of all the shitstorms. Thanks in no small part to 'whales'.

I feel bad for the devs, who don't even get the benefit of the horrid monetization. But not the higher-ups that deliberately created this situation.

 

[Silver Wattle]

Good

Hated the first game especially it's fanbase

Love the name.

 

[GetInTheRobot]

Man, user reviews are so pointless because you never know what will cause people to vote or down vote en masse. If anything you should just laugh at it and move on. The last of us part 2 has a 5.8. You'll be iigh.

 

[Neilg]

Wasn't the pve mode basically the only thing that was going to set the sequel apart from what could be done with an update to the first? They well and truly fucked this one.

 

[BlueLyria]

It's not really a "Review Bomb" if it's a reflection of the playerbase's growing discontent, is it?

 

[Maestr0]

When you screw your game because bad decision or even Bobby Kotick, don't expect to have any sympathy from us, Brigitte was already a damn warning, it was the most brainless characters to play when she was released.

I should change my avatar anyway, by the way double sniper was the best meta.

 

[GHG]

"#OWDevAppreciation2023"

Sorry, what exactly are we supposed to appreciate here?

 

[DemonGamerTTT]

In fairness, OW2 is far from the worst game on Steam, it doesn't deserve to be the worst rated.

I think both can be true that many people have legitimate problems with the game and leave negative reviews, but also other people are review bombing

That's not how it works champs...

This is a Blizzard game so the bar is way way higher than the other shit asset flips we have on steam.

For a game that generated more than 2 BILLION DOLLARS in revenue this game is in a complete joke state right now, Blizzard has no excuses and you shouldn't try to make one for them.

 

[Companion Cube]

It’s crazy how helpless Keller sounds talking about how they couldn’t do this and that like they really are playing into the poor indie dev meme.

 

[gaming_again]

"#OWDevAppreciation2023"

Sorry, what exactly are we supposed to appreciate here?

I’m dying here.

Gaming can be bottom-barrel stuff sometimes.

 

[Zuzu]

Good! I'm not fully familiar with the Overwatch 2 issues (I know the sequel is very similar to the first one but with a battlepass & they scrapped the PvE) but I'm glad it's not a fun experience. It's time that numerous game companies & their developers experienced pain and learnt that they're making bad products and they need to change what they're doing.

 

[Tedditalk]

"the free-to-play game was Steam's seventh top seller (by revenue) that week. Players must have been dropping money on its $15 PvE mission pack or its premium battle pass to get it that high. However, it's since sunk down to 63rd place."

The only thing that mattered, and that still could not have been done right. It was still a financial success because too many people just ate the shit up.

 

[AREYOUOKAY?]

They aren't Xbox or Playstation fans review bombing a new game release that nobody has played yet. This is a game that has been out for years and replaced with a downgraded f2p scam claiming to be a sequel. Years of Blizzard ruining something that had potential only to be ruined by greed and other mistakes.

 

[Dreathlock]

Playing OW2 isn‘t a fun experience neither.

 

[Valt7786]

Stop Making shit decisions, hiring the wrong people for the wrong reasons and making empty promises then? Throw shit out expect to get shit thrown back at you.

 

[Heisenberg007]

When "reviews bombs" are just honest reviews.

 

[Hudo]

You aren't review-bombed, mate. Your game is legit trash.

 

[SidViscous]

If I had both launch day Overwatch and the latest Overwatch 2 installed, I’d play the launch day version.

they made a bunch of shitty changes just to try and justify the F2P rerelease, if any other game released such a shit sequel it would score low too.

Review bombed? Sure jan

 

[faraany3k]

Every Blizzard project starts with negative press. But most of it go and sell gangbusters. Take Diablo 3 for example, it sold 30 million copies. The thing is, Blizzard is doing live service games when the term was not coined. They will be fine.

 

[Wildebeest]

They made an addictive game which scams people for money and people hate, but at least it's still addictive and makes money, right? That means it's a real cool game.

 

[Shubh_C63]

Still 30K players on steam but steadily declining.

 

[Pegasus Actual]

Siege won.

 

[Bernardougf]

Man, user reviews are so pointless because you never know what will cause people to vote or down vote en masse. If anything you should just laugh at it and move on. The last of us part 2 has a 5.8. You'll be iigh.

I agree.. 5.8 for the last of us 2 is absurd... anything above 5 for this abomination of a sequel is to much

 

[KiteGr]

The whole thing was a sceme to turn a product people paid for into a service to make them pay more.
I want my Overwatch 1 back please.

 

[Tsaki]

Man, user reviews are so pointless because you never know what will cause people to vote or down vote en masse. If anything you should just laugh at it and move on. The last of us part 2 has a 5.8. You'll be iigh.

Agreed. Watch people go and downvote OW2 even further just because of the comments of this director.

 

[BlackTron]

"the free-to-play game was Steam's seventh top seller (by revenue) that week. Players must have been dropping money on its $15 PvE mission pack or its premium battle pass to get it that high. However, it's since sunk down to 63rd place."

The only thing that mattered, and that still could not have been done right. It was still a financial success because too many people just ate the shit up.

Now this is a real problem. I want to install it just to get some small semblance back of the game I already purchased, but spending any actual money on it? Vote with your wallet, not your angry reviews. I already spent money when I bought the game; I'm done.

Despite the talk going around, if it made enough cash to get that high on Steam for even one week, then their move of pulling the plug on OW1 to funnel customers into 2 worked, and this behavior has been reinforced for the people who actually made the decisions.

 

[DeltaPolarBear]

They aren't Xbox or Playstation fans review bombing a new game release that nobody has played yet. This is a game that has been out for years and replaced with a downgraded f2p scam claiming to be a sequel. Years of Blizzard ruining something that had potential only to be ruined by greed and other mistakes.

Yep. If someone made a shitty sequel you could just play the original. But Blizzard made the decision to kill the original before releasing the shitty sequel, which means fans have the RIGHT to be upset at the game they PAID for, turning to shit.

You bought something, and now it has been replaced with a worse version of itself. Why wouldn't you be mad?

 

[Goalus]

Still 30K players on steam but steadily declining.

Doesn't look too steady.

 

[Roni]

"Opens up" is a bit of a stretch in the thread's title, it's not like he's talking to a shrink or something...

 

[Kataploom]

Well, I have good news for him so he can sleep well at nights: It's not review bombing, players have been complaining on the internet about their game since forever, it's just the purest expression of their hearts.

I mean, I thought people complaining about tanks damage was a bit overblown until I played it... WTF do they have in their minds to design such an unbalanced mess?