Players are finally jumping into Overwatch 2 after years of waiting, but many of them were quickly met with large queues. They were forced to wait in queues with thousands of other people that could take anywhere from a couple of minutes to hours. Some players also suffered from unexpected server errors, and were booted from the game. What was supposed to mark the grand return of Overwatch gave players headaches and caused a bit of backlash across social media instead.
Waiting in long queues to play a game is never fun, but it is par for the course for Blizzard titles. Overwatch 2 is just the latest in a long line of Blizzard games that were plagued with server issues on launch day. Almost every new World of Warcraft expansion, Diablo 3, and the infamous Warcraft 3 Reforged have had rocky launches. While it does not make the launch woes of Overwatch 2 any better, this seems to be a pretty regular occurrence for Blizzard.
Overwatch 2's Launch Woes Explained
Overwatch fans were excited to see what Blizzard had been cooking up with Overwatch 2, and it was supposed to mark the grand return of the franchise after the studio left the original to gather dust during the development of the sequel. The betas were promising, and players were ready to dive into the full release once it finally hit store shelves. The release date came, and many of those players were immediately met with endless Overwatch 2 queues that prevented them from jumping back into the series' world.
Players were waiting in queues filled with thousands of people, and many were disconnected when they finally got in. These server troubles have lessened since, but some are still struggling to jump in. On top of that, perviously owned heroes were inaccessible for many players, which prevented them from playing who they wanted to play. There were also many bugs that ranged from friends lists disappearing to players falling through the map in certain modes. Blizzard's new phone number requirement further embroiled this launch in controversy as players soon learned that prepaid phones from companies like Cricket and Mint Mobile were not valid.
Overwatch 2 Joins a Long List of Blizzard Games With Troubled Launches
Overwatch 2 has had a rocky launch, and it has sparked a bit of social media backlash. However, a lot of what has been going on is actually pretty common for Blizzard titles. Even after all these years Blizzard tends to have very rocky launches for some of its biggest games, and Overwatch 2 is just the latest title from the studio to be plagued by launch issues.
Long queues are all too familiar for World of Warcraft players, as almost every new expansion is inaccessible during the first couple hours. So many players are trying to get in, and that forces others to wait for long periods of time before they can play. Each new expansion also tends to have many bugs at the start that force Blizzard to push out hotfixes as soon as possible. No matter how many World of Warcraft expansions have released, these long queues and server issues seem to rear their ugly head every single time. Many Warcraft fans will also not soon forget the launch of Warcraft 3: Reforged and the state of that title in general.
Diablo 3 was the latest major Diablo title, and it is considered one of the worst PC launches to date. Players who wanted to play the game on release were met with the infamous error 37. The game was mainly single-player, but it required a constant internet connection to play. This error was caused because the servers were unreachable for days, and that prevented everyone from playing the game. On top of that, Diablo 3 contained a real money auction house that proved very controversial with the player base and was removed a couple of months after release.
Overwatch 2's launch issues can be very annoying, but they are also expected from a Blizzard title. The studio is actively working on fixing the issues that remain so that players can play the game they have been waiting to check out since 2019, but these server issues will probably crop back up once World of Warcraft Dragonflight releases in November. Maybe one day Blizzard will be able to iron out any possible launch issues before the release date hits, but for now players will have to get used to waiting in large virtual queues.
Overwatch 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.