"If we can’t turn back the clock, what can we do?": Overwatch 2 Game Director responds to Steam review bombing

Overwatch 2 was released on Steam on August 10, 2023. With the game now available to a larger playerbase and the re-emergence of the tactical shooter in China, Blizzard hoped it would captivate the community. It did not, however, go according to plan as the game got review bombed and received overwhelmingly negative reviews on Steam post-update.

The game, despite bringing a fresh new Season, failed to satisfy its players. There were complaints about the worsening state of PvP and developers' failure to deliver new PvE content. The community was not happy with the overall state of the game, forcing its Game Director to address the issue.

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Aaron Keller, Overwatch 2 Game Director, responds to Steam review bombing and speaks on future of the game

Aaron Keller recently reached out to the community to address the game and what its future holds. The blog starts with a few positive reviews on the update as he talks about the feedback on the first chapter of the Story missions and the co-op event. He then shifts to the major issue — the overwhelmingly negative review bombing on Steam.

Despite feeling concerned with the game's Steam launch, he was encouraged by the influx of new players:

"We also launched on Steam last week, and, 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."

He also addresses the massive disappointment of the Overwatch 2 community with regard to the cancellation of PvE content. Explaining that their failure to commit to a project shouldn't deter in-game improvement, he stated:

"If we can’t turn back the clock, then what can we do? We can keep adding to and improving Overwatch 2. That is how we move forward. This means more maps, heroes, game modes, missions, stories, events, cool cosmetics, and features - an ever-expanding, evolving, and improving game. This is the future of Overwatch."

However, the community is somewhat happy with the new Story missions. Along with the latest Battlepass and the Null Sector theme, these are a few things that have received positive feedback. Keller is also happy with the higher-difficulty runs that content creators have found entertaining.

He delved into some statistics:

"Only 1.6% of attempts successfully completed Gothenburg on Legendary, and 0.7% of attempts on Toronto were successful!"

Keller further goes on to talk about the new Support hero, Illari. He says that the community is pretty satisfied with how balanced the new hero feels and her role in-game. She is set to be available in ranked on August 24.

Keller also addresses the new game mode, Flashpoint. He says it hasn't received much attention and would like some feedback from the community to ensure swift changes.

He stated:

"We also released a new game mode, Flashpoint, with two unique maps this season. While there’s been a lot of talk about Illari and other parts of Overwatch 2: Invasion, we're seeing lower conversation around this mode."

The blog concludes with Aaron Keller promising that Overwatch 2 is slowly on the rise, and fans should trust the team to deliver from now on.

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Despite not being received well on Steam, the current state and upcoming updates of Overwatch 2 indicate a swift rise in its playerbase. If the developers keep their word and continue to deliver content at this pace, Blizzard's competitive shooter might redeem itself online.