Overwatch 2 has the ignominious honour of turning into the worst user-reviewed sport on Steam ever, though its current launch on the platform has seen tens of hundreds of gamers.
In response to Steam250, which tracks the 100 worst Steam video games of all-time based on person critiques, Overwatch 2 has a rating of simply 0.96 based mostly on an approval ranking (proportion of constructive Steam person evaluate votes) of 10% from 92,028 votes.
That’s sufficient for Overwatch 2 to high Steam250’s listing, beating the earlier primary, card battle sport Battle of the Three Kingdoms from Chinese language developer Youka.
So, why is Overwatch 2, a sport that launched first on PC and console late 2022, struggling so badly when it comes to person critiques on Steam simply days after it launched on Valve’s platform?
Many of the damaging critiques give attention to one factor: monetisation. Blizzard was heavily-criticised when Overwatch 2 launched final 12 months because it compelled its premium predecessor to replace right into a free-to-play sequel, rendering the unique Overwatch unplayable. Since then, Overwatch 2 has endured quite 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.
One evaluate, from Steam person Ornge, sums up the sentiment: “Overwatch 2 has no respect for you, it’s an attempt to pry open your wallet while masquerading as the game it used to be.”
In response to Daniel Ahmad, director of analysis and insights at Niko Companions, Overwatch 2 can also be struggling heavy criticism from Chinese language customers. In a tweet, Ahmad identified practically two-thirds of Overwatch 2 Steam person critiques are written in simplified Chinese language, with 97% being damaging.
Whereas Chinese language Overwatch followers share the identical criticisms as these from the remainder of the world, they’re additionally upset on the finish of Blizzard’s settlement with NetEase for the distribution of Blizzard video games in China. This led to a widespread shutdown of Blizzard video games in January, which in flip triggered gamers in China to lose entry to their accounts and the flexibility to play on a nationwide server. “The launch on Steam is the first time that gamers can vent on an open and international platform, with many taking the opportunity to do so,” Ahmad defined.
Whereas gamers in China can use a VPN to entry Overwatch 2 as soon as once more now it’s on the worldwide model of Steam, gamers report sluggish logins and poor connections. In response to Ahmad, Overwatch followers in China are so upset they’ve left constructive critiques for Battle of the Three Kingdoms in a bid to maintain Overwatch 2 forward of it within the race to the underside.
“In the end, it’s clear that Overwatch was and still is a popular IP in China,” Ahmad mentioned. “But the string of events starting from the shut down at the beginning of the year has led to pent up frustration being let out all at once.”
All this negativity comes whilst tens of hundreds are enjoying Overwatch 2 on Steam. Final week’s launch, which got here alongside the essential Invasion replace, was seen as a surefire method to develop Overwatch 2’s playerbase from its console and Battle.internet base. Certainly, Blizzard has mentioned it now considers Overwatch 2 to have moved on from its early entry part.
Overwatch 2 broke into the highest 5 best-sellers on Steam by income, and based on SteamDB, Overwatch 2 hit a peak concurrent participant depend of 75,608 over the weekend. On the time of publication, Overwatch 2 was the seventeenth most-played sport on Steam with 36,979 concurrent gamers, forward of the likes of Civilization 6, Terraria, and Rainbow Six Siege.
Whereas Blizzard can have hoped to keep away from Overwatch 2’s “overwhelmingly negative” person evaluate ranking on Steam, its metrics for achievement will embody issues like “engagement” and “player investment”. Wholesome spending within the free-to-play sport will, for Activision Blizzard, show the final word barometer of success.
Blizzard not too long ago advised reporters it’s calm on declining participant engagement with Overwatch 2, placing it right down to the pure ebb and circulation of being a free-to-play sport. However, clearly, there’s quite a bit using on the Invasion replace, though Blizzard has downplayed its significance. All eyes can be on Activision Blizzard’s subsequent monetary report, the place it’s anticipated to make some touch upon the success or in any other case of Overwatch 2.
In the event you’re contemplating leaping in, here is all the pieces it’s essential find out about Overwatch 2 Invasion.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You may attain Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
