Image: Activision Blizzard
Overwatch 2 has not had a good time. After undergoing two third-party attacks that made it nearly impossible to play, the hero shooter came under fire for its poor cell phone policy. Then many had problems playing Overwatch 2 with friends. Blizzard did its best to ease these pains, removing the phone requirement entirely and allowing more players to experience the sequel as the week progressed, but not before there was extended downtime on Thursday night. By Friday, fans had discovered a chat bug that randomly spent their real money on the store. Now it’s evening and to kick off the weekend Blizzard has another update.
In a new status update post, Blizzard expressed gratitude that fans have been “patient” throughout this saga, and while there are some welcome improvements now, the game’s bigger status update is still a bit of a mixed bag.
Effective immediately, console players who have a linked Battle.net account since June 9, 2021, along with all PC players with linked accounts, will not need a mobile phone, Blizzard announced in the status update. In an email, a Blizzard spokesperson clarified that completely new players to Overwatch 2 still require a phone number, so the requirement hasn’t gone away completely.
While Blizzard says it’s making progress on things like account merging issues, along with players not being able to access their purchased Watchpoint Pack on consoles, the developer states that some may still experience issues. There is still a queue for the first issue, and in the case of the latter issue, PlayStation owners in particular may not see the product in their inventory. A fix is reportedly being rolled out later in the evening. Some may still experience those pesky login issues, but Blizzard made it sound like this is a much smaller stumbling block to the game now.
Perhaps the most ironic point in the status update is what replaced the login issue. Here’s Blizzard, explaining how by improving one thing, players can now experience a worse experience elsewhere:
Now that we’ve increased capacity and have higher player concurrency, matchmaking systems are affected, meaning you may have to wait before being placed in a match. We are changing configurations within this system today and hope to shorten that waiting time somewhat during the day. We will continue to investigate the matchmaking queues throughout the weekend to identify any additional improvements we can make.
At least you can be in the game while waiting.
Blizzard knows fans may be frustrated after the week that just came out.
We appreciate your patience and thank you for your support, and we are focused on improving the Overwatch 2 experience for all players.
For now, it looks like Overwatch players will have to wait until next week to see more meaningful changes than the ones that will appear in the game later tonight.