- The company will release several cosmetic items for free
- Players can redeem these by logging into Overwatch 2 from October 25
- Blizzard says the game is now stable and will not suffer the issues it had on launch
Overwatch 2’s launch was plagued by many crashes and DDoS attacks, so Blizzard is trying to appease disgruntled fans by offering a few free skins and charms.
Blizzard Releases Some Free Cosmetics
It’s been just over a week since the much-anticipated Overwatch 2 came out and the game has had a bumpy start. The game suffered multiple problems since its launch, ranging from glitches to overstressed servers, to a multitude of DDoS attacks. Blizzard has been trying to fix these issues over the past few days and it finally seems it has succeeded in fixing most of the issues. To make up for the inconvenience caused to players, the company announced it is releasing a ton of new items that players can redeem for free.
To obtain these items, players will have to log in any day from October 25 to the end of Season 1 of Overwatch 2. Players will be able to get a new Cursed Captain Reaper Legendary skin and a Health Pack weapon charm.
Blizzard is also planning several double match XP weekends to help players advance their battle pass progress/ However, no specific dates have yet been announced. The Overwatch 2 developer team also said that it hopes to be able to fix the issues plaguing the game as soon as possible.
“We’ve largely stabilized the game overall, and we’ve made a lot of progress in fixing or improving issues some of you are facing,” the team wrote. “We're committed to consistently investigating issues as they arise, working quickly towards fixes, and being transparent with our community on the status of Overwatch 2.”
Why Was Overwatch 2 So Unstable during the First 24 Hours of Its Launch?
One would think that after years of development, Blizzard would have figured out that there would be a ton of people who want to play Overwatch 2 at launch. However, what players were met with were long queues, sometimes lasting for more than an hour, and many crashes when the matches finally started.
On top of that, Overwatch 2’s servers were the target of frequent DDoS attacks. They started not long after the game’s launch and logins slowed to a crawl, with players reporting endless queues and frequent disconnects. Blizzard president Mike Ybarra assured players that the team was working hard to minimize the attack.
After an agonizing 24 hours, the game’s servers finally seemed somewhat stable with queues for games being reduced to several dozen minutes. Players reported fewer crashes and it seemed like the game was actually playable. But the damage had already been done with fans complaining about the time it’s taking for Blizzard to stabilize the servers and the lack of updates. We will have to wait and see if Blizzard’s cosmetics item giveaway will be enough to satisfy disgruntled players.
