Death of a Game: Overwatch

this video is sponsored by khimyra.com tune in later   to find out more about them and how  you can save 10 off your next purchase   who thought we would be returning so soon with  the stench of death still in the air so fresh   from our beloved childhood rts blizzard is no  more at least they aren't the same blizzard   and we don't need to spend an entire video  attempting to convince ourselves that they are   activision blizzard is in full effect  and i have something to admit detectives   i didn't fully acknowledge it in the warcraft  3 death of a game video which if you haven't   already seen it please go do that at some  point it's relevant for this video in the story the fact is i didn't look at blizzard in 2018  or 2020 as fully evolved activision blizzard yet   as my video kind of exhibits and that's wrong  because after taking on the behemoth of a case   overwatch you can already see the signs  back then oh speaking of which overwatch   the king of the hero shooters the same game  that killed many of the titles we have covered   on the series already that's what's on the menu on  today's episode of death of a game the post-mortem   series where we document the evidence and clues  concerning the largest contributing factors to   the death of a game or company with the sequel  announced and then delayed an overwatch one   now existing in some sort of weird limbo where  content updates are coming fairly infrequently   for a once titan of a multiplayer title i think  it's safe to say that overwatch 1.0's time in   the sun has come to an end with overwatch 2 set  to near forcibly take it over once implemented   what went wrong with what seemed to  be the shooter title that did no wrong   a mega blockbuster that helped shift the industry  how did the title in shorter time than some of its   competitors failed to last at the top of the  mountain despite initial overwhelming success   choose your role in hero and prepare to  drive the payload to what might be the   most precipitous fall from grace for a  popular shooter we've covered thus far while blizzard's tale begins in the early 1990s  and encompasses numerous titans such as starcraft   warcraft and of course world of warcraft we're  going to rewind to 2007 and just take a little   pit stop following world of warcraft's massive  success in 2004 in the subsequent years blizzard   who is still very much blizzard that we knew at  the time was interested in recreating the magic   and producing yet another successful mmorpg jeff  kaplan who worked on wow prominently as both a   game director and head of pve where he got the job  being a prominent player and community member of   everquest 1 would lead the team and the project  would be dubbed titan if you want to read more   details about what the game was originally set to  be check out this piece from jason schreier that   details more but for the sake of keeping the video  shorter i'm gonna condense it project titan was   in development for six years from 2007 to 2013 and  it would never see the light of day as by may 2013   it was cancelled there's not much details  otherwise released about what the project was   but we know it was set to be an mmo project with  an interesting duality of regular social day life   and a pvp combat focused night portion players  could do things like run shops businesses and even   start families just to illustrate how serious  of an mmo-style approach of a game they were   going for here are some of the buzz words used  to describe what the game was supposed to be   team fortress 2 meets destiny meets the sims meets  world of warcraft but perhaps the full story of   titan is a story for another time especially when  it wouldn't be fully realized and development   shifted to a new project altogether the topic  of this video november 7 2014 is when blizzard   announced their first new ip in 17 years overwatch  a team based six vs six multiplayer shooter with   a focus on fun over-the-top characters in  overwatch you played on a map where you   attempted to push a payload as a team or you  tried to keep said payload from being pushed   and then you had an attack and defend phase for  certain parts of the map or certain maps entirely   while kills had an impact on the result of a  match the ultimate objective was the objective   showcasing the announcement was a cg trailer  showing off pixar-like animation the very pretty   art style following the announcement limited  gameplay was also shown where one team must   defend a point and the other will attack utilizing  a range of different characters and abilities   to do such such as turrets shields and healing  streams there were 12 playable heroes available   and the title was playable at blizzcon 2014 with  a closed beta to come sometime in 2015. blizzard   would reveal more details concerning overwatch  march 6th 2015 such as two new heroes in mccree or   retacted cole cassidy the gunslinging cowboy with  a pistol or zarya the energy laser gravity gun   giant russian lady with cool pink hair characters  like zarya as explained by blizzard were developed   in a response to a supposed desire for more  diversity in games that's what made overwatch's   character cast so good though it was diverse but  not in some way that felt overly forced or kind of   gimmicky each hero was as unique as the stereotype  or aesthetic that they were trying to accomplish   there was a bit of flavor for everyone around  the globe but most importantly unlike many other   copycats later on blizzard's simplicity of the  package of each hero was the most impressive part   anytime you see zarya you know it's zarya  big gravity gun shields all over you get the   idea the hero identity in overwatch was just very  quality most importantly was announced the closed   beta to come in the fall although expectations  were initially that the game was supposed to be   a casual shooter and as expectations as in just a  few months prior but now expectations were already   starting to shift towards would overwatch be a  competitive shooter jeff kaplan the lead developer   on overwatch would wisely caution against an  aspiration for esports citing hearthstone as an   example and that you need to give the community  a chance to grow competitively grassroots style   which i fully wholeheartedly believe in  if only they would have heeded that advice blizzard would take a different approach with  their closed beta one that would anger many   fans of the company and those interested in the  game they would only allow a very limited amount   of testers in choosing to go for a more true beta  style approach i was one of the lucky few who got   invited into the beta and boy was it a different  site for starters they actually had a scoreboard   i was very much intent on becoming a pro player in  overwatch that was my aspiration on this channel   before making content about star wars and well the  death of a game series i even won one of the first   unofficial lands dreamhack austin where we beat  a top collegiate team and won the open brackets   story time the whole thing is kind of crazy now to  be fair i basically just got carried because the   last second a pro player from team liquid v asked  me to play on the team because they needed a sixth   and then at the last second just told me to play  tank because the other four teammates who were   shooter monster players from other titles that  had championships but had never played overwatch   before so i was stuck on tank duty but still for  a time i technically was the highest earning pro   because in that same tournament on tank i won  a razer blade for scoring the play of the game   in the finals and no if you're wondering the  play of the game wasn't even impressive that's   the best part i just heated somebody off the map  as reinhardt and basically killed myself in the   process but i was a razer blade richer after  that that's my personal history with overwatch   it started in closed beta wii being the  competitive crowd full of x-pros and current   pros from other games and then the mmo gamer  nerd like me would make lobbies all the time   and just play together it was a blast it's what  made me so hyped for the game's potential we even   had a series of tournaments organized by gosu  gamers where we got to see shoutcasted matches   of overwatch during the close and open beta so  how did this end up angering fans besides it was   just limited testing well all of this is how hype  is being built and blizzard's first ip in almost   two decades being showcased as an esport yet  not playable by most people or you can kind of   imagine what people were so angry or interested  in playing that's because anytime something's   competitive or seen as competitive people want  to be well competitive which means they want   to have their chance to play the game testing  or not and have it fair blizzard restricting   access was fairly common for a beta but wasn't  typical for the mainstream audience at this point   with beta shifting to more marketing ploys at  that point than an actual state of the game   overwatch and closed beta though was a special  experience so i can't completely blame people   being annoyed that they couldn't experience it  especially when to be honest a good portion of   all the best players in the game later on were the  same players in closed beta grinding and lobbies   it was very much the typical quality blizzard  testing experience and i say that as a tester   of diablo 3 starcraft 2 and heroes of the storm in  alpha overwatch's launch was announced at blizzcon   2015 as well as more information such as the fact  that it would include 21 heroes and only costs 40   for the standard edition the reason for this  is that it will be launching multiplayer only   just like team fortress 2. i'm sure not trying  to draw any comparisons right but console players   would kind of get shafted here as they would have  to pay the full price of the game 60 dollars and   get a multiplayer only game overwatch beta  would come to a close december 3rd for a   short break before coming back in january of 2016.  overwatch would be during this time swirled in a   controversy if you want to call it that regarding  a certain tracer pose blizzard was asked to remove   it by many fans sensitive about a girl with  some junk in the trunk but this wouldn't mark   the last of the controversies unfortunately that  overwatch would find itself in more lore and hype   was generated for overwatch with the impressive  animated shorts that would start launching march   2016 and onward these shorts were so good they  had the player base asking for full episodes   to counterbalance the fact that they were  multiplayer only but not free to play blizzard   would announce that all overwatch content posts  released such as maps and heroes would be free overwatch's open beta would take place may  2016 just before its launch where blizzard   would revel in incredible success as they would  pull in 9 million players overwatch wasn't only   watch anymore available only to a select  few it was playable to millions of people   and taking over the world before it even launched  activision blizzard was putting the time effort   and money to make sure that overwatch's launch was  huge they even took the time to have a bunch of   giant oversized overwatch characters put up across  the globe in busan la and paris in particular the   overwatch that was launching may 24 2016 though  wasn't the same overwatch it started as anymore   while many changes were likely due to the fact  that feedback was being received and they were   trying to respond to such blizzard would  change key aspects of hero balance and even   key things such as removing the scoreboard that  originally existed but some things didn't change   or weren't really accounted for properly  for starters the game would launch without   a competitive mode leaving how blizzard would  handle such kind of a mystery would they allow   hero stacking for example or do as some of the  community tournaments we're doing at the time   restrict them in some way it seemed like  blizzard was going to try and solve that   problem after the fact which would work if the  community had a chance to evolve organically blizzard's 6 vs 6 hero shooter overwatch  would launch may 24 2016 and score 91 out   of 100 on aggregate review website metacritic game  informer would score the game a hundred stating it   was fresh and consistently fun and a masterful  polishing ign would score overwatch in 94 out   of a hundred stating it was an incredible  achievement in multiplayer shooter design   overwatch as positioned for was a smash hit for  activision blizzard grabbing numerous awards   including game of the year and being named game  of the year by outlets such as eurogamer game   informer ign gamespot and the escapist in under  just one month overwatch had reached 10 million   players immediately becoming a blockbuster  hit but while that's certainly impressive   and a measure of success the  true measure of success is the   porn scene that sprung out of nowhere  for overwatch and business was booming   i'm just kidding but seriously it showed the level  of cultural phenomenon that overwatch had reached   if there were any serious issues with overwatch  they weren't exactly apparent yet at least not   for most players the game was smashing every  record imaginable and it was hard to think of   it being anything short of near perfect but  less than a month after the launch of the   game and already there were some clues forming  about what would become of the fate of overwatch questions about if overwatch would be in esport  were all over the headlines more importantly if it   did become an esport or more competitive shooter  would it have what it takes to become successful   at such you might be wondering how some of the  very respectable names in esports were dubious   from the start about overwatch's future as an  esport but it's because the biggest issue in   overwatch esports are competitive or just watching  it in general is the most glaringly obvious   overwatch has an issue being discernible to  experienced players in a competitive environment   with a spectator mode let alone completely new  players or ones who are just not experienced   enough it's difficult during the heat of the  action and team fights in overwatch to discern   what's going on this leads to key impressive  moments getting kind of lost in the shuffle   early on people thought it was just inexperienced  observers which is typically what people say   but over time it was shown that overwatch has  a game in general is difficult to understand   if you're not very familiar with  it and even then it's difficult   it's not just the abilities it's the fact that the  game is six vs six on top of all of the abilities   it's not a traditional death match either it's a  payload map that often times turns into a capture   point style map which means by literal design  there's tons of waiting around for the payload   to move for you to run out of spawn and etc no  other esport has had such a design for a game mode   so you have all of these abilities the shooter  parts of overwatch thrown in there with hit scans   and projectile based characters alike and the  non-typical shooter game modes all contributing   to a recipe of poor visual clarity during esports  and competitive play contrast this with a classic   sport where the concept is simple it's just  get the ball on the goal or other shooter   esports where it's just like kill the other  guys or plant the bomb but it's also still   technically kill the enemy team these are way  easier to understand and visually see take place   this wasn't some death curse though for overwatch  it didn't need to be an esport team fortress 2 the   game in many ways it was emulating had an esports  scene but was almost entirely community run   there could still be a scene for overwatch  to have a similar thing regardless if it was   created right away or artificially through  the outside investment or expectation   but with esl announcing a six-figure tournament  for overwatch june 2016 it's hard to imagine the   game was going to have much of a choice not being  shepherded into becoming a competitive esport   100 000 tournament not technically even officially  supported by blizzard anyway wasn't enough to push   the esports scene too quickly necessarily but  it wasn't going to help matters as the game   in its popularity regardless if it should be  an esport would attract players and interests   remember within a month it had 10 million players  but if blizzard decided to fully commit to esports   without correcting some of their design issues we  have outlined already or updating their approach   it might be relegated to becoming a tier 2 or  tier 3 esport not worthy of the snatcher and   success that the game shares and worse that  could start to cause some serious damage if   their design started to shift to appeal to that  competitive audience even for a modicum amount   because the sea of non-competitive esport players  in overwatch is the overwhelming majority of them overwatch was marching on ahead with incredible  success scoring 269 million in digital revenue   most likely being primarily from loot boxes  present in the game something that we haven't   talked about yet overwatch had a base game  price and would allow you to gain skins from   just playing the game and gaining the gold  but they would also allow you to purchase   a loot box which had the chance to drop a rare  skin the loot boxes being so closely associated   with the game marketed towards children though  is kind of what rubs people the wrong way but   the success of doing such was undeniable assuring  in the age of the loot box really korea a market   known as not being controversial with the  subject of microtransactions or loot boxes   by the end of june 2016 was having overwatch  overtake league and pc bangs across the nation   truly signifying either a change of  guard or a new player on the scene   impressive even if it was a temporary affair  why not everyone is against loot boxes morally   it should be acknowledged that sort of right under  people's noses activision blizzard made a fortune   off of loot boxes and putting them in a casual  children's shooter game but i guess it's just   perspective and all right overwatch would not  only get a new hero in their first major update   anna a unique precise sniper based healer  they would get a number of balance changes   most importantly though were some balance changes  that would also be affecting the new competitive   mode that's concerning hero stacking blizzard had  taken a stance finally on restricting such and   ranked play not allowing you to play all the same  class or even more than one the problem is is that   now you can't even have two of the same hero which  severely limits the game's options even with 22-23   heroes but also simultaneously isn't a good look  because it goes back to what we said previously   why is blizzard deciding this important kind  of stuff so last minute according to jeff   kaplan the reason being initially the team had  developed a team only competitive queue mode   meaning you can only queue in competitive as a  full team the idea was that as jeff kaplan stated   the best way to play the game ultimately was as  a full team as it was designed but also seemed to   reduce toxicity and difficulty finding a quality  match as a player the feedback was apparently very   negative regarding such though whatever that  means exactly i'm not sure but the response   was bad enough that it at the very least scared  the overwatch team from pursuing such further   i however think jeff and the team were kind of  right in their idea obviously hindsight being 2020   they should have trusted the idea despite negative  feedback that's because ultimately as many of you   guys know as we will discuss shortly overwatch  would suffer from a slew of toxicity issues   i'm about to email you a picture of my hairy  dick also can you even aim an arrow of where they   [ __ ] are they clearly weren't in that corner  that's good you didn't all you [ __ ] idiot can   you please listen to what i'm saying so now i know  what the problem was there's a [ __ ] girl on it   also i get a little cranky from carrying the  team it's also just simply speaking a better   game with a premade almost an entirely different  game even overwatch 6 versus 6 with a full team on   comms was how the game was meant to be played  but by not having a full team based cue or at   least the option for it or even the tools to  create such overwatch was opting for a far more   simple inaccessible regular ranked format this  was actually proving problematic for overwatch   because it was suffering from immense toxicity  issues and that was related to how the game was   designed because overwatch has kaplan himself  admitted is focused on being a team focused game   when it isn't a full team experience there's  way more room for error and lack of team synergy   while that's pretty typical in most games and  overwatch the game was night and day different   with an organized team versus people just  trying to play team deathmatch which is kind   of how most matches would end up this leads to  more toxicity issues as players get frustrated   when their team doesn't work with them and then  when the scoreboard's hidden you don't even know   what your scoring really or even your teammates  are scoring in relation to you and blizzard only   put that in because they thought that that would  curb toxicity but it accomplished essentially the   opposite as now you have no objective measure to  know how you or your teammates are even performing   sure you have the limited stats that they  give you but those aren't good enough and   to make matters worse the new competitive mode  was based on skill rating which is conflicted   because it only slightly rewards your personal  play while giving you a big penalty for losing   in a super team based game you can imagine how  that can lead to even more frustration for players   as some feel like there's little way to personally  influence the course of a game compared to nearly   every other competitive shooter on the market  blizzard was aware of the toxicity problems but   they had committed to their course of action and  whether or not it would actually curtail or stop   toxicity remain to be seen but was doubtful  because the core issue aka the game design   wasn't being solved perhaps had blizzard done a  better job introducing players to each other and   forming teams with each other some of the toxicity  issues could have been alleviated but they would   unfortunately plague overwatch from the beginning  of the game throughout most of its life cycle almost as if fate had things planned out already  or just the desire to make a lot of money blizzard   announced an overwatch league november 4th 2016  just a few months after launch if kaplan's initial   approach was wait for the community to grassroots  it then the new approach was throwing an entire   bathtub of gasoline onto the fire and watching  it explode in delight blizzard wouldn't just   be announcing a single tournament either but  an entire professional league meant to emulate   real sports with franchising city-based teams and  all nate nanser the global director of esports on   overwatch would outline a path to pro which meant  to emulate the real professional sports leagues   too what kind of sports leagues decides what the  rules are though and fixes the infrastructure   after the fact after they launched the league for  example well none but to be fair sports leagues   aren't popping up all the time exactly either  to create an entire league it's going to take   an entire ecosystem of support pieces professional  players sponsors broadcast partners and etc this   isn't just some online tournament or single lane  it's a series of local lands in each particular   franchise region and city blizzard trying to do  such seemingly overnight boat loads of money or   not was going to be difficult they were first  going to need franchise teams to sign up and the   slots were very likely going to cost them millions  rumors would circulate over the supposed franchise   teams with talks of the patriots owner robert  kraft and the new york's mets ceo jeff wilpon   los angeles miami san francisco shanghai and seoul  would all be franchise team options as well seven   teams isn't exactly enough to create an entire  league but blizzard was firm and asking for 20   million dollars for a franchise slot there was  reportedly fair profit sharing from the league   to the teams and then the players but how on earth  was blizzard going to sell 20 million dollar slots   when there wasn't even really an esports scene for  overwatch yet with salaries for pros at a minimum   of fifty thousand dollars i was happy for my  friends getting paid for being amazing at the game   as they should but i was worried back when this  was announced because there weren't any examples   of esports being artificially created and then  being successful there just isn't it's been done   over and over again it doesn't work there also  wasn't enough information about the challenger   amateur scene and the path to pro options that  were mentioned either which made the whole   overwatch esports thing feel even more forced  at the end of the day the game might have been   competitive but what did it have to be an esport  and why didn't necessarily have the markings of   being the best one so far no signs of that but  investors were trusting in activision blizzard's   vision anyway especially as overwatch eclipsed  30 million players they must have figured well   a lot of players surely means that that's going  to translate into a lot of viewers right hello   everybody i'd like to welcome you to this video's  sponsor kamira.com kamir.com is a clothing company   that makes sleek and cool but cheap and affordable  clothing for you for me i'm currently wearing one   of their t-shirts right now one of their graphic  tees and i really like it it fits nicely it's   comfortable and best of all it's a ford here's an  example of one of their shirts let's see it's just   a plain tee this one but it's really nice they  have nice plain tees as you can see the best   part about chimera besides being affordable and  looking good is that they use premium material   with their clothing but only work with sustainable  manufacturers and factories so if you use code   nerd slayer next time you're on kamir.com shopping  you'll get ten percent off your next purchase   thank you to khmer.com for sponsoring this video  anyway detectives let's get back to the case blizzard has been slowly adding heroes to beef  up their roster adding sombra a damage based   character who can hack an enemy and disable their  abilities but march 2017 and july 2017 two new   heroes would heavily change the balance of a game  in a way i don't think blizzard anticipated with   the addition of erisa a new powerful shield tank  and doom fist a powerful damage dealer with a near   one-hit kill combo arisa would push the meta even  more into a shield-based tank meta making shields   even more powerful including being able to place  a shield now on the ground shields are simply   speaking not very fun to watch for spectators and  not that fun to shoot at for most players despite   being incredibly important to break it's one of  the most frustrating parts about overwatch is that   you have to tell your teammates and explain  to them that they need to break shields but   who wants to sit there shooting at shields  the whole game breaking them kind of nobody   doomfist as well just made the game feel less  like a shooter and more like a moba which   would become a gradual shift from this point on  especially with many hit scan heroes like mccree   or cassidy and soldier 76 being repeatedly nerfed  now doomfist was even more powerful due to these   nerfs and due to the fact that he required  a team to deal with him taking advantage of   the game's design while erisa and doomfist would  complicate the meta and balancing i don't think   they were nearly as problematic as the next three  heroes to come later that year going into the next kaplan would promise harsher penalties for  toxic players and urge players to use the   report features to try and discourage toxic  players but blizzard's unwillingness to ban   accounts was on full display and many examples  of them offering temporary bans on even some of   the most egregious defenders they would eventually  introduce competitive mode bands but even then the   toxic players can just play quick play so you're  not really getting rid of them blizzard not being   firm on toxicity and dedicating the resources  needed as the article would compare them to league   of legends which had an entire team dedicated  to toxicity and you still get cancer anyway but   anyway are also huge contributors to the game  facing issues sure as we discussed already the   very design of the game can create these toxicity  issues but if the toxicity does happen and is   spotted and you still aren't really stopping it  that's obviously going to create problems too   can we please the love of god just get on  the point use the tanks to charge christ   if you're wondering why we're dedicating so much  time to esports portion of overwatch in this video   too it's because we did something similar in the  heroes of the storm video and simply speaking   blizzard has done this before they have tried  to force an esport and it failed epically that   failure takes resources focus and above all else  can affect the base experience of the game if   blizzard fails again with forcing an esport on  overwatch it's going to be a huge blow to their   game's community and success with a hefty 40 game  schedule ahead for each of the now 12 teams by   november 2017 and a million dollars on the line  it was full steam ahead for overwatch esports   with a cool new 200 million in sponsorships  from hp toyota t-mobile and spotify in tow   in the beginning of 2018 the news cycle would be  focused on overwatch league and the competitive   gameplay in order to get the game ready for  esports with more than 10 million across   multiple platforms tuning into the league blizzard  was in position to capitalize on the success and   hope it's more than just a one-time thing just  one or two big events though isn't enough to   become the next big esport nor is it enough to  rival sports leagues for reference nfl games   are pulling tens of millions of viewers every  game not just the super bowl merely a few months   later though and sponsors were already worried  as overwatch's toxicity issues were spilling over   into competitive play blizzard was still able  to score a broadcasting deal with twitch though   at the last second may 2018 to make matters worse  the big question mark over the path to pro stuff   that we mentioned previously wasn't alleviated  especially when news came out in october of 2018   that blizzard would be cancelling any offline  tournaments for the contenders league stopping   amateurs from getting crucial lane experience  blizzard was also reportedly months late on   payment for the contender players with some  receiving only some of their money or none at all   this likely contributed to the biggest broadcaster  of overwatch contenders dropping all together   shortly after the amateur scene suffering wasn't  a good sign of things to come in overwatch esports   because that's the lifeblood in the future of  the game's talent pool it's never a good sign   in any competitive endeavor overwatch's in-game  spending aka a fancy way to not say loot box   would top an impressive 1 billion dollars by july  of 2019 overwatch had no signs of going anywhere   anytime soon raking in great successes for their  corporate overlords well until the cracks started   to form bit by bit combination of new heroes  balance issues would start to hurt overwatch   in the scene overall by summer of 2019 blizzard  had launched six different heroes but five in   particular were problematic for starters moira  the support character who required little to no   aiming was added and to me she lowered the  overall skill floor for playing a support   whether that's bad or good i think is actually  more opinion based bridget or brigade or however   you pronounce her name nobody ever figured out was  added after and she would cause many nightmares   before being finally nerfed much later bridget  was basically a tank support who could assassinate   enemy assassins due to her kit which allowed her  to basically stun you and then whack you a bunch   of times until you died sigma was also added and  while not necessarily as outright annoying as   bridgette rig it reject brigade bridgette whatever  her name is sigma yet again increased the shield   prevalence further shifting the meta towards more  of a shield meta because now you have another   placeable shield that you can stack the three of  these characters in unison though slowed down the   speed of overwatch as a game and made the game  feel like it shifted it more into a moba category   than the shooter category especially with most hit  scan and projectile based characters made rather   obsolete by these new heroes they created a new  meta altogether dubbed goats which was basically   three healers three tanks and was dominating the  scene this is where blizzard's approach to hero   design i think never had much place in competitive  play similar story with heroes of the storm   basically these characters are set from the  beginning to be designed to be fun and over the   top to attract casual players to do this requires  creating very gimmicky and silly characters to   sort of call into question competitive integrity  and when pressed about balance issues due to this   they have a very laissez-faire approach to  feedback letting the issues kind of persist for   some time to put kind of bluntly the annoying  part about overwatch hero design is that it's   annoying to get killed by certain heroes when you  can suddenly press a button and your team doesn't   die until a field runs out like baptiste does is  it more of an ability based game or a shooter when   heroes keep getting released that don't require  much aiming or shooting and have very powerful   abilities well you can kind of see my point  overwatch at launch and in beta felt more like   a hybrid of the two overwatch by the end of 2019  felt more squarely like an ability-based hero game   and that kinda seemed to contradict their  constant push to esports and the competitive crown in a shocking turn of events mainly because  blizzard typically takes ages to release sequels   overwatch 2 would be announced november 2019  overwatch 2 was set to fill the missing pve   component of overwatch that overwatch was only  ever to flirt with in events overwatch 2 would   also be affecting the pvp gameplay including the  pvp balancing hero reworks and the removal of the   sixth hero making the game now five versus five  overwatch one and two players will share the pvp   experience effectively on top of this they would  be nerfing some healing and shields as well as   introducing a new game type dubbed push the idea  is that the shift would move overwatch to more of   an exciting playstyle game having one less tank  while this might help things i'm not convinced   it's the deciding factor ultimately but we shall  see well if the sequel does indeed launch with   blizzard being unable to commit to a launch  even as late as 2023 the biggest dagger that   would come out from the overwatch 2 news was  the effective discontinuing of new heroes and   significant content for overwatch 1 effectively  putting the game in some sort of maintenance mode   as long as overwatch 2 remains unlaunched  overwatch 1 is stuck in a bit of a purgatory   limbo whatever you want to call it sequel  announcement in an unsure future and no new   updates for overwatch 1 isn't good for the  game's longevity and nothing short of dying   overwatch and subsequently overwatch league were  in trouble by january of 2020. for starters most   of the pve and holiday events up to this point  had just been recycled which was not very triple   a company like to not constantly be creating new  novel content especially with fortnite out there   overwatch had become stale and the aforementioned  issues had led to a bleed in the population   but the overwatch league was facing far harsher  problems with three big broadcasting talents   and similar monte cristo and doa dropping out  and complaints overall of just low viewership   nate nands of the original owl lead had left  the company which according to monte cristo led   to irreconcilable creative and philosophical  differences between myself and the league's   current leadership many reasons for these issues  outside the game's issues and the issues of the   viewership though the pro and talent involved in  the owl league were reportedly having to travel   around 76 000 miles which is nearly double an  nba player's travel time throw in the fact that   you're playing on a computer and yeah it gets  kind of weirder right al being a failure isn't   a surprise to most who have been in esports for  a long time it's just more frustrating that the   failure was so predicted by so many people because  that's an awful lot of money to be artificially   throwing into a scene only to pull it right  back out that doesn't really create an ecosystem   at least not a stable one blizzard again has  done this twice and if they aren't a lesson to   other developers to not try and force an esport  on a game especially with boatloads of money i   don't know who would be blizzard was still somehow  able to keep scoring these deals though as another   160 million dollar deal would come from youtube  though that would be bundled with the call of duty   league overwatch was meanwhile suffering from more  design issues regarding heroes and matchmaking for   starters in order to enforce the 222 meta blizzard  would implement a role cue that would lock you to   your preferred role the problem with the roll  cue was well it highlighted more of the game's   problems in the first place there were double the  amount of offense characters compared to the tank   or the support characters so people wanting to  play dps more wasn't just because of support and   tank or boring it was because statistics right if  anything it made it worse funneling everyone into   only one role and then giving you really long  queue times kaplan stated it wasn't an attempt   to try to fix the goats meta or the esports meta  either which sorry i just don't buy but by may   of 2020 they were adding an open cue mode that  doesn't require a roll lock back to the game   that's basically admitting at this point  that they didn't really know what to do   so might as well just go back on what they had  said it seemed like the more blizzard tried to   restrict and constrain their meta and control it  in their player base the more negatively they were   reacting and maybe that's because they were doing  it after the fact or just kind of messing up 2020   would only see a single hero introduced down  from the previous two and three a year blizzard   was maintaining previously which even then is  pretty damn snail-paced compared to league or even   heroes of the storm by 2020 just four years after  launch players were already starved for content march 2021 and blizzard would suffer from a 50  person layoff relating to esports in a shift away   from in-person events to online primarily due to  the pandemic they no longer would need the extra   50 people i assumed to run the online events or  a convenient way to let go of a bloated esports   branch we don't know exactly al was certainly  in trouble though with last year's grand finals   having a 61 decline in viewership from the  previous year but ao abandoning in-person   events wasn't going to cut it either after all  they designed their esports as a franchised base   esport without local events to fund the franchise  teams they weren't going to be making the revenue   they needed to really even break even viewership  numbers most likely were only going to continue to   decrease and at that point you're paying millions  of dollars for a slot that doesn't make you much   money throughout this time activision blizzard  was involved in a court case regarding rampant   toxic harassment behaviors in the company and this  made them fairly negative in the public perception   causing them to potentially lose state farm  t-mobile and coca-cola as sponsors to make matters   worse a hong kong esports player of hearthstone  known as blitzchang with donna mask and asked   people during a live interview to liberate hong  kong the revolution of our times these protests   would be related to the 2019 through 2020 hong  kong protests while i'm not going to dedicate much   time to the giant struggle between hong kong and  mainland china and how china is basically trying   to pretend that hong kong doesn't exist and of  course the people of hong kong are being harassed   silenced and even worse in some cases death but  how the controversy affected blizzard was after   the interview it was immediately pulled off air  how blizzard responded to the whole thing made   people feel even worse shortly after the stream  was cut and blizzard would ban blitzchang blizzard   had shown with the action that they were willing  to put chinese interests over the interests of   the people of hong kong or even blizzard's own  audience would have been a perfect moment for the   group of heroes meant to save the world to kind  of do some saving huh blizzard's last play is   the transition to overwatch 2. something that they  hoped to show off in april of 2022 by allowing the   owl players to play on an early build of the game  but overwatch 2 wasn't different or deep enough   for many players to warrant being called a true  sequel more of a content update asking for a price   tag and it has not launched for two years after  being announced so the hype is kind of running   cold the future of overwatch is all but done with  the transition on the horizon as we already have   discussed but we're discussing more than just the  failure of overwatch 1 now if overwatch 2 doesn't   knock things out of the park there's a good chance  that both overwatch's could be in danger for a   maintenance mode just like heroes of the storm or  worse total abandonment like warcraft 3 reforged   blizzard would lose many of its most talented  developers throughout this drama the court case   drama and subsequent dramas including the main  driving force behind overwatch itself jeff kaplan   kaplan would not only just leave overwatch but  blizzard altogether and we can only speculate   as to why but with activision blizzard having so  many stories leaked about them at this point i   think we have a bit of an idea without kaplan  to helm overwatch 2 that doesn't necessarily   mean it's guaranteed to fail or anything but it  doesn't spell well for the game's future they   lost arguably the most important developer behind  the project the one who kind of sucked out and   kept the project alive it feels like the passion  left with kaplan not that passion was enough to   keep the franchise going without significant  change but it makes the current overwatch   experience i think just feel that much more hollow  especially when like i talked about with the blitz   chunk situation and sexual harassment situations  when the premise of the entire game is built on   heroes from all over the world mexico the us  france russia korea all uniting together to   defeat evil meanwhile the evil in this case  is now the company behind the game itself   well overwatch is literally the name given to  these groups of heroes but how are we supposed to   feel motivated to play as them for a company who  cares so little for its workers and their health it's that time of the video detectives the point   where we compile all of the clues and  evidence gathered up until this point   for a final deduction to put this case to  bed regarding the death of a game overwatch   issues with core balance hero balance and etc  conflict design and game focus like a casual   game pushing for esports a boring and complicated  game mode with poor tutorials artificially pushed   and failed as an esport poor content offering  and an update schedule for a blockbuster title   issues with toxicity due to built-in design and  lack of management by blizzard bad publicity and   total loss of faith of their audience announced  the sequel delayed it then put the game into limbo   overwatch's failure strikes home for me as i  personally invested a lot of time into the game   but it stands out to me because here you still  have team fortress 2 chugging along quietly   meanwhile overwatch has this massive fall from  grace part of me feels like with their approaches   respectively it was inevitable for the result  to happen the way it did even though they both   shared very giant success to start but i do really  feel that overwatch is one of the highest profile   examples of developers just fumbling the bag  that we have featured on the series so far   they really had the dream a massive audience  willing to buy loot boxes and make them millions   one who was even satisfied with less content  being offered but not the litany of issues that   came with being an overwatch player ultimately  activision blizzards simply aren't the same   company anymore and can't rely on the goodwill of  the previous regime and ip is to save them anymore   and i doubt many are so willing to give them  another shot frankly but i wish overwatch 2 the   best of success because i never wish any game or  company to fail but if overwatch 2 fails as well   then i guess you guys know where to find  me detectives thanks for watching guys so you

Channel: nerdSlayer Studios

Views: 2,211,818

Keywords: gaming, videogames, video, game, multiplayer, online, massive, new, hd, nerdslayer, nerdslaying, nerd, slayer, slaying, critical, analysis, content, opinion, critique, life, of, death, character, look, back, at, mmo, mmorpg, n.s., overwatch, shooter, anime, blizzard, entertainment, blizz, activision-blizzard, activision, tracer, mccree, cassidy, dva, d.va, reinhardt, winston, console, ps4, xbox one, hero shooter, battle net

Id: 53ZFo8jpDfI

Length: 41min 13sec (2473 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 12 2022