6 years ago, the release of "Overwatch" ushered in a hit, attracting countless players and anchors for a time, and later became the top FPS with e-sports events. Relying on the hero characters and moba-like skill system, many players have gained an unforgettable gaming experience. It's just that 6 years later, this once god-level game has fallen to the altar – and it's still before the sequel is announced.
Last week, Overwatch 2 conducted a B test, although it was a test with limited places, but because of the super popularity of the previous game, it still attracted many players to come to experience, or watch the game on the live broadcast website. However, according to the data of the overseas live broadcasting platform Twitch, even if Blizzard cooperates with a number of top streamers, the number of comprehensive online viewers of the game has fallen madly from 1.5 million at the time of the first test, and to the recently released news, it has fallen less than 6,000 people, if these players are counted as potential players, then after a week of broadcasting, almost 90% of potential players have been lost
Why the once top FPS has fallen to this point, players who know Overwatch probably have an answer in their hearts. Since its popularity, Overwatch has actually been constantly caught in various twists and turns. For example, the character update is too slow, and the character design is constantly changed for political correctness. Add to that the impact of various scandals coming out of Blizzard's top brass.
And the most fatal thing is that these effects really make the quality of the game decline. Because of the lack of new heroes, the game's environment can only rely on cutting old heroes to solve the balance problem, but matching problems, bug problems, and plug-in flooding, coupled with the continuous decline of e-sports projects, so that Overwatch players have begun to laugh at themselves "who still plays OW this year". Waiting for "Overwatch 2", obviously a new game and a new atmosphere, Blizzard still chose to change the skills, delete the role of the solution, the external plug-in processing is infinitely laissez-faire, and even some people broke the news that the "Overwatch" plug-in is slightly modified, you can adapt to the sequel of this absurd thing.
So, is the "Overwatch" who is caught in this dilemma really not saved? In fact, there are still ways, but it depends on whether Blizzard's strength can be supported. Because of similar gameplay and similar commercial operations, in China, there is a martial arts style action game called "Eternal Destruction" running stably.
It is also a game that mainly uses hero characters to fight in teams, and also has a variety of exclusive skills. The Hero Update for Forever Ends has miraculously achieved both efficiency and quality. From its release to the present, each new character in the game has its own unique skills and characteristics, while also having a solid quality. For example, the recently new character Takeda Nobunaga, which can be traced back to the game demonstration in 2019, has been polished for so many years before being released, which shows the degree of care of the production team.
In addition, the esports competition of "Forever Doom" also ran smoothly. Last year's international competition attracted a number of famous clubs at home and abroad to join. This year is an e-sports event that focuses on multiple planes. From professional to amateur events, take care of everything. There is a lot of momentum to impact esports aces like LOL.
And at the anti-plug-in level. "Forever Doom" is also very hard. From the early stage of the game test, an anti-plug-in team has been set up, not only will monitor the cheating behavior in the game, but also cooperate with the police to investigate, continuously crack various plug-in organizations, and strictly investigate the behavior of "sitting on the trailer", trying to solve the problem from the source. Even reporting plug-ins in the game will be rewarded.
Of course, through various means of solving problems, it can be seen that 24 Studios does not have the ability to foresee the future, and the success of "Forever Doom" is likely to be due to the "lessons learned" from predecessors such as "Overwatch". As for whether the borrowed predecessor can overcome many problems through his own efforts, it is time to give answers. Do you think overwatch 2 still has a chance to win back a round? Welcome to discuss it together in the comments section.