Oh, look! It’s time for yet another news story about how Blizzard isn’t worried about what’s going wrong with Overwatch 2! Fun times, wouldn’t you say? Jokes aside, Blizzard has been doing everything in its power to not admit fault with what’s gone wrong with the title and “reassure fans” that things will be fine. Players of the game will tell you it’s not going fine, and it’d take quite a bit to get things back to the OG title’s quality. Another way you can easily see that things aren’t going well with the game is its declining player base.
Last month, Blizzard acknowledged that fewer people were playing Overwatch 2 and putting in far less time than with the original game. They countered this by noting that their upcoming “Invasion” content, which is out now, would likely help swing things in their favor.
However, in a chat with IGN, when the question about declining numbers emerged once again, Executive producer Jared Neuss noted:
“The declining stuff is basically, we are a free-to-play game and it is very easy to both come to the game and check it out, and to leave to check out other stuff. We see a normal ebb and flow of players. There’s nothing concerning to me or the team about any of that.”
While it’s nice to see the team try to put a positive spin on things, that comment isn’t accurate in certain ways. Yes, the game is free-to-play, and that would make it easier to “go to other titles” and then come back later. But you could say the same thing about games you’ve physically purchased. You buy it, play it for a long time, and then leave it for a bit to go play something new.
Furthermore, if you have a really good game, then you won’t leave the title that often to play something else, especially when it’s something that “has no end” regarding its gameplay loop.
As players would likely note, the game’s lack of players is due to its lack of quality. That notion is something the gamer community isn’t afraid to talk about, as the title recently got released on Steam and is now the worst-reviewed Steam game ever!
Oh, and if you’re curious, how many people put in those reviews? It was nearly 100,000 gamers!
Things could indeed turn around, but if it doesn’t, Blizzard will have to continue doing some “spin” on what’s actually happening.
