Overwatch 2's Steam Premiere Hit By Criticism: Receives 90% Of Negative Reviews

The Steam launch of Activision Blizzard Inc's (NASDAQ: ATVI) Overwatch 2 faced significant issues, as a large number of players left negative reviews.

Despite breaking into Steam's top five best-sellers by revenue and achieving a peak concurrent player count of 75,000 players, only 10% of the 50,000-plus user reviews were positive, resulting in an "overwhelmingly negative" rating on Steam.

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Complaints centered on free-to-play monetization, game balance, lack of promised PvE content and a toxic player base, Polygon reported.

"They released Overwatch 2 as a free-to-play business model, which leans more heavily into microtransactions, overpriced skins and predatory behavior," user Bray commented on Valve's storefront. "To make matters worse, they shut down the first game, making it unplayable for people who purchased it, meaning the player base has to move over to this free-to-play business model to keep playing the game."

The gamer further criticized: "But at least it will have a promised PvE Hero mode that would feature character progression, which was a main part of the game’s selling point? No, that was canceled. But you can buy a lighter story mission for 'only' $15."

"Don't support this predatory behavior," the reviewer concluded.

Blizzard has shown some responsiveness by communicating changes to heroes and implementing a program to address toxicity. It has also increased in-game currency rewards, though premium currency (Overwatch coins) remains unchanged.

When announcing the company's expansion to Steam, Mike Ybarra, president of Blizzard Entertainment, stated: "It’s our goal at Blizzard to listen to players and try to exceed their expectations in everything we do."

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Photo: Courtesy Activision Blizzard via Steam.