Overwatch 2 has the ignominious honour of turning into the worst user-reviewed recreation on Steam ever, though its current launch on the platform has seen tens of 1000’s of gamers.
In keeping with Steam250, which tracks the 100 worst Steam video games of all-time in keeping with consumer evaluations, Overwatch 2 has a rating of simply 0.96 based mostly on an approval ranking (proportion of optimistic Steam consumer overview votes) of 10% from 92,028 votes.
That’s sufficient for Overwatch 2 to high Steam250’s checklist, beating the earlier primary, card battle recreation Warfare of the Three Kingdoms from Chinese language developer Youka.
So, why is Overwatch 2, a recreation that launched first on PC and console late 2022, struggling so badly when it comes to consumer evaluations on Steam simply days after it launched on Valve’s platform?
Many of the unfavourable evaluations concentrate on one factor: monetisation. Blizzard was heavily-criticised when Overwatch 2 launched final 12 months because it pressured 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 function, gamers stated, that justified the sequel’s existence.
One overview, from Steam consumer Ornge, sums up the sentiment: “Overwatch 2 has no respect for you, it is an try to pry open your pockets whereas masquerading as the sport it was.”
In keeping with Daniel Ahmad, director of analysis and insights at Niko Companions, Overwatch 2 can be struggling heavy criticism from Chinese language customers. In a tweet, Ahmad identified practically two-thirds of Overwatch 2 Steam consumer evaluations are written in simplified Chinese language, with 97% being unfavourable.
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 induced gamers in China to lose entry to their accounts and the power to play on a nationwide server. “The launch on Steam is the primary time that players can vent on an open and worldwide platform, with many taking the chance to take action,” 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 keeping with Ahmad, Overwatch followers in China are so upset they’ve left optimistic evaluations for Warfare of the Three Kingdoms in a bid to maintain Overwatch 2 forward of it within the race to the underside.
“In the long run, it is clear that Overwatch was and nonetheless is a well-liked IP in China,” Ahmad stated. “However the string of occasions ranging from the shut down initially of the 12 months has led to pent up frustration being set free all of sudden.”
All this negativity comes at the same time as tens of 1000’s are enjoying Overwatch 2 on Steam. Final week’s launch, which got here alongside the essential Invasion replace, was seen as a surefire strategy to develop Overwatch 2’s playerbase from its console and Battle.internet base. Certainly, Blizzard has stated it now considers Overwatch 2 to have moved on from its early entry section.
Overwatch 2 broke into the highest 5 best-sellers on Steam by income, and in keeping with 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 recreation 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 unfavourable” consumer overview ranking on Steam, its metrics for fulfillment will embody issues like “engagement” and “participant funding”. Wholesome spending within the free-to-play recreation will, for Activision Blizzard, show the final word barometer of success.
Blizzard not too long ago instructed reporters it’s calm on declining participant engagement with Overwatch 2, placing it right down to the pure ebb and stream of being a free-to-play recreation. However, clearly, there’s lots driving on the Invasion replace, though Blizzard has downplayed its significance. All eyes will probably 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 case you’re contemplating leaping in, here is all the things you have to learn about Overwatch 2 Invasion.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You possibly can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
