Overwatch 2’s Big Update Has Been Shut Down
A long-awaited Overwatch 2 patch isn't coming just yet.
Tough luck for all Overwatch 2 players terrorized by Sombras and Genjis, as the midseason patch — which should’ve nerfed the aforementioned characters and their respective classes — has been postponed. Not surprising, considering that the game’s release was muddied by a DDoS attack, after which Overwatch 2 actually broke a franchise record and inflated to double the size of its predecessor release. And just when we thought that the only thing worse than a delayed release is a premature one, the patch releases get delayed.
According to IGN, Blizzard released an official statement disclosing that a critical issue has been found in the Overwatch 2 patch just hours before it’s supposed to go live. The company’s teams are currently working on rectifying the issues, and the patch is supposed to go live as soon as the problem is addressed. IGN lists November 17 as the next release date for the patch, so those “maining” Mei (those who play Mei as their main character) won’t have to wait too long to get back into action. Whether that’s truly the case remains to be seen, but patches are generally one thing Blizzard is true too.
Along with Mei, who was removed from the game earlier this month due to an exploit that gamers used to shield themselves from other gamers, there are several other changes that are currently put on hold. This includes balance changes, bug fixes, and core content updates. The delay also affects the rewards players receive for watching Overwatch League Playoffs and Grand Finals, which include skins, emotes, and sprays, and on top of everything mentioned, Blizzard won’t be able to rotate the items available in the Overwatch League section of the shop, at least for the time being.
There is some good news, though, as the daily and weekly challenges reset today since Sunday-Funday is actually Wednesday in Blizzard’s dictionary. This means that the items in the main shop will also reset, along with weekly lockouts. As far as the postponed patch goes, though disappointing, Blizzard’s decision to postpone the patch is actually quite commendable, as imperfect codes may lead to security issues and further exploits — which is exactly why Nintendo rolled out a very vague update across four of its games.
We can further forgive Blizzard for their delay since Activision Blizzard King, as a whole, has a lot on its plate. There’s no forgiveness for the controversial legal issues surrounding the company, but as far as the gaming releases go, ABK’s Call of Duty Modern Warfare II is currently the biggest entertainment release of the year in terms of earnings, work is being done to ensure that the Overwatch 2 play quality reaches the required levels, and World of Warcraft’s next expansion, Dragonflight is less than two weeks away.
In fact, Overwatch 2 delayed patch was supposed to go live along with the latest patch for World of Warcraft, which brought early access to the next expansion’s new race, the Dracthyr. These dragonkin were data mined several expansions earlier while Blizzard was still contemplating the fate of Dragon aspects within their largest gaming universe. However, they also brought a race-specific class, the Evoker, with them in the new pre-expansion update for one of the largest MMOs to date.
