The Continued Decline of Overwatch 2

I just want to stop complaining about Blizzard, man...

I never thought I’d see the day where “getting rid of loot boxes” was a way of a company being even more predatory and exploitative.

Miss the days when gaming was niche and devs actually had a passion for their work and wanted to give a game people would love

13:37 His prediction was pretty much spot on. Just forgot to mention that there are only 3 mission per season and each bundle of missions cost 15 dollars.

Here's an interesting take. They marketed a PvE game mode and made a few clips to show "gameplay" to generate hype and entice people to buy the game, but Blizzard had no intention of ever releasing a real PvE mode.

I think this is why indie developers thrive more than AAA games, because people who work with these companies have to listen to people who don't care about the creativity part as long as it's making money and ALSO have to listen to so many restrictions that have become the killing point of these games that could be so much more than they are. So many companies and basically anything have fallen into the hole of "we need to be the richest the world has ever seen" and it's so saddening.

Man, I remember when Blizzard used to be the company that wouldn't release a game "until it was ready." I've known they've been gone for awhile but this certainly affirms everything my heart didn't want to accept.
Also. I cannot believe these execs could get on a live stream and with a straight face talk about their shifting values and pretend it was all according to plan.
RIP Blizzard 😢

I loved the part when Ashe said “Bob do something!” And then Bobby Kotick scrapped PvE

9:40 you could see the pain in his face when the poor guy had to tell the world that all these great features that he himself loved had to be cut from the game because of the greedy higher-ups

I work in marketing and one of my biggest frustrations with sales people is when they "sell the roadmap." They get people excited about what the product can do in the future and not what it can currently do. So then when the roadmap changes, those customers are pissed because the reason they bought the product now won't happen on the timeline they were told.
This applies to all of us as consumers, too. We can't trust companies to stop selling the roadmap. But we can choose not to buy the roadmap. Don't buy a video game because of what they say will come in the future. Wait until those things are actually live and then buy it.

Sir Swag is quickly becoming the AP/Reuters of gaming channels, the gold standard in resporting that other people are beginning to use as a reference for their own content. That's really cool to see, as someone who subbed to him years ago back when he was just doing fun Overwatch guides.

It ain't easy being the act man, I've seen this man time and time again lose his faith in the things he loves because they're in the hands of people who truly don't care.
Firstly Halo, I grew up on Halo myself, it had a big place in my heart, I own toys, and collectibles and all that kinda stuff. So I know it hurt to see Halo infinite go down the toilet. I'm not an Overwatch guy, never have been, it's got nothing for me. But to see Act Man yet again hold his head in hands in frustration over seeing something he cares about get railed by corporate mismanagement still is sad to see. Although anyone could have seen this coming, Blizzard (to me personally) is one of the most greedy, evil companies there is. Boby Kotick is literally Satan and is driven only by his insatiable never ending greed. Plus Blizzard has had a spotty reputation for many years now, so I'm never surprised when they do something wicked.

Won’t lie, this is why I’ve turned all my attention to indie games. They’ve got all the heart, soul, passion and willpower to be something great

When I’m in a “disappointing people” contest and my opponent is Blizzard:😰😰😰

Came back after PvE was released and he was absolutely right about the person on the radio talking about how good we’re doing but what’s worse is that if you want the other missions you have to PAY. Classic Blizzard.

The lack of a story driven single player campaign was the only reason I never played Overwatch even once, despite really loving the universe and characters. The promise of one was the only thing that made me think about trying it out finally. Now I know never to bother with any product ever owned by Blizzard.

I remember a game that had both pve and pvp content alongside dynamic talents tress that changed your abilities in cool and fun ways each match its name was battleborn but the overwatch community killed it

9:36 "Did you just lose all your talent ?"
As a matter of fact, they did. A huge proportion of the original team has left Blizzard since the recent controversies and another huge chunk was fired. You can basically say the only thing same between the original and new team is that they are both answerable to upper Blizzard management and unable to make healthy decisions for the game themselves.

It's scary that companies can get away with stuff like this. It worries me for future games.

I never played Overwatch, but was excited to see the new PvE mode, the mode that was 'Suppose' to be what the sequel is actually all about, and what they even marketed the game around. Now to see it cancelled just like that and for no reason? I mean, how deep can Activision-Blizzard be this greedy and careless with their fans?

Considering the recent news over the past couple of days, this video aged like a very fine wine. The Act Man does it again. 👍

Once more, I find myself thankful to have turned my back on AAA studios, and turn to smaller and indie devs making niche games that are fun. No more frustrating unfinished/live service games for me.

You called it. Pve was as you described: cinematics, radio talk, basic objective, done.
Although charging $15 dollars in a bundle was uncalled for. Scummy higher ups and their desire to make all the money.

Man, I remember when TF2 dropped Mann vs Machine 11 years ago.
Just outta nowhere. No one was like "hey, we want a dedicated PvE gamemode", they just decided to do it.
And it was great.
Good times.

I think the crazy thing that no overwatch creators will talk about is just how bad the ranked system is too and how that's killing the PvP side astonishingly fast. New players are automatically throw into gold/plat and go on a 20 loss streak until they get down to the point where they can get carried sometimes and stay stagnant at a rank they still couldn't have gotten to on their own, old players below plat have to do the opposite and win 20 in a row to try to get a full rank ahead which is just impossible with how many players are deranking, smurfs, and trolls. Even the higher ranked games are screwed with players who have no right being up there, or getting games with plats, or players going 5-12 and getting thrown into GM. I personally deranked from plat 3 to silver 5 (got kicked from gold on a positive win card) after going 8-25 and it's been impossible to climb out with how bad the system is and my account being super old. I did a bunch of research the past week and it's been happening to people in troves. I even queued into a few masters and diamonds players last night when on a win streak and talked to them about it.

Boeing is a prime example of what chasing short term shareholder gains will do to a company in the long run. Blizzard/Activision is a close second

I feel bad especially for the devs that actually worked on this mode since 2019 (or even before). Most game developers can't release any of the work they do when they work in a studio due to NDAs, so essentially all of that work they did will never see the light of day. They can't even put anything in their resume or portfolio. Truly a despicable business move by Blizzard and I hope we can all agree to boycott their games.

I may be the only person that appreciates the AVGN clips, but goddamn, I do love it. Thank you Act Man.

I’ve never played over watch at all but the PVE mode was interesting to me and I was really impressed by the gameplay but once they cancelled it was just a shame that they decided to cancel it all for the PvP mode

Havent played Overwatch in years, same with my friends, but I have a feeling that the PvE mode would have 100% gotten us hooked back on the game again

You inadvertently hit on exactly why Blizzard can't make truly great games anymore: they lost all their talent. Genuinely enthusiastic and creative designers were smothered by middle managers and executives and left the company one by one. The people who made great games for Blizzard are either gone or so beaten down by committees and meetings they can't make the awesome stuff they once did.

Yo man you probably won't see this but thank you for speaking out and sharing how you feel on this. To see someone with a platform as yours saying what needs to be said is great to see its like you're the voice for us gamers who are tired of the over monetization of video games. its been like this way too long and I for one am fed up with it and havent been buying any games or really playing for that matter. great work Act Man keep it up although I do hope gaming can get back to the good ole days

ACTMAN! Thanks for all your great videos, I especially liked the ones where you covered the decline of Blizzard as a company lol

The gaming community really needs to come together and agree to stop buying micro transaction and cosmetic items. Force the industry to actually focus on making fun games again.

I think that the greedy board members and execs should be held accountable by gamers. They make decisions that not only disappointing for us, but also cripples the devs and pushes them to go against their creative instincts. The executive board that put out those disappointing games should be on tv and take the heat and we should be able to interact with them instead of them hiding in their mansions pretending that its not their faults.

5:27 is just sad. The developers are loving what they're doing, and they're being held back. It must be so demoralizing to know that you have a genuinely good product that you just aren't given the chance to let breathe.

Blizzard went from being run by sexual predators to financial predators

The fact that destiny is a example of how success can be made with pve live service, even if destiny doesn’t always hit the mark when it comes to story

The fact that this is trending is great. I hope they see this. I was actually going to come back to Overwatch nearly 4 years later for this only to have it scrapped. Guess I won’t be back then

I think what disappoints me the most is the fact that developers of modern games do what them to be fun but executives spoil it for money. Also the fact that a game makes 2 million a day but you cant spare some of it to make a game good.

man i loved lootboxes, i would use whatever little money i had when there was an event or just some random day and i would buy some, and then i would wear the the skins and whatever rewards i got from them with a smile and just play and chill and laugh with the bois, it made the game more interesting for me, i was also really lore invested so i loved all the comsetics, and now they got a battle pass which i hate, i honestly think that whenever a game adds a battle pass, its a clear message to everyone saying, (GIVE US MONEY), i think that it just sucks, its not fun, i downloaded overwatch 2 and linked my account cause i wanted to relive those beautiful memories again and now it just felt bad, its just not the same anymore, it honestly hurts to see something that i love so much go down the drain like that cause of corporate greed, its genuinely making me depressed.
#makeoverwatchgreatagain

Now from what I read about PvE mode is that it's still coming and that it's going to be huge and 10hrs long. The mode can be a stand alone game by itself on how big it is so, they canceled it to still work on the story because PvE story mode is OW1 and OW2 put together telling on how it began and what it became with each charter story line.

“Making video games is hard, so we gave up.” - Blizzard

I was so pumped to OW2 -- when PvE was scrapped I erased OW from my mind. I literally haven't thought about this game once until I found your channel

If they really wanted to release the PvE mode, I feel like they would have released it with the characters they had finished the talent trees for, and then said "other heroes will be available at a later date"
Something tells me releasing that mode was never a priority for management

I never played overwatch in my whole life but if i did in it's hay day like 2016 to 2018 i would've loved the game
You can see from the art style the story the animations the comics the trailers that the team put so much love into the game
People still ask for a overwatch animated series
I mean arcane proves that you can have a successful animated series based on a multiplayer game
But the continued greedy tactics of Activision blizzard
The endless controversies surrounding the work places
And just being lazy about anything is enough to a big fan to leave the company and everything about them

Its crazy how time flies. I remember finding your channel when i was in the 10th grade. Now im going into my junior year of college. I used to read comments like this as a kid and would wonder when this would happen to me. Now i feel extremely old.

Genuine question: how is this not lawsuit worthy?

It is actually impressive how long Blizzard has managed to stay in a decline and not show signs of bankruptcy or being shut down. So many other companies crashed for being in a nosedive for shorter amounts of time. I guess that is just the kind of safety net you have from cultivating loyal fans and pandering to certain crowds.

I’m no financial expert, but this shift in Blizzard’s direction seems incredibly short-sighted.
In order to squeeze out more money from their games today, they’re willing to completely tarnish their reputation and deplete their long-accumulated fan base.
I can’t imagine the pay-off is going to be worth it in 10+ years. But who knows, maybe their plan is to just switch again when they hit that low point.
I feel bad for any remaining Blizzard employee who is still passionate about making games. I hope they can manage to get out before Blizzard inevitably starts cutting people & projects again.

I think the core problem is productivity. Because they are employing 12,000 people which is enough to build a small to medium sized city a year yet seem to have serious productivity issues. Then they are struggling with margins and creativity in creative industries like gaming and art

In overwatch 1 when there was the story game mod event me, my dad and my brother spend so much time on them to finished them on the legendary difficulty and same goes with friends. I tried to come back for overwatch 2 but after like 2 months i left because it was the same game i played for years where i was able to get to master rank...... for 2 games then i drop back to diamond but hey was cool. Point is. Its the same game that i played for so long with barely anything new. I was waiting for that PVE so much because i knew i would come back for it and grinded the fuck out of it.

This ploy by blizzard has been the longest ive paid attention to overwatch at all. I never got sucked into the game thankfully. But as someone on the sidelines i've been seeing them in perfect clarity. When 2 launched and 1 went down just to force players in, it was obvious this was going to happen. Blizzard is no longer a game company, they are a microtransactions company designed to cheat the players.

Love the content! Can't wait for the next review!

Great video, they deserve to be called out

Yeah, that's really sad, I didn't put any money into the game but I'm sorry for everyone who did, thinking pve will come around.
I am looking forward to supporting smaller companies, the risk there for them to do corpo-greed-stuff is smaller.

Since you mentioned co-op shooters in the beginning of the latter half of the video, have you ever tried Helldivers? I've returned to playing it recently and figured I should shill for it since it's pretty fun.
It's a top-down shooter where you play as a not!ODST and fight against three different alien factions with a key part of the gameplay being something called "stratagems" where the player characters can call down various things like weapons, vehicles, defensive emplacements, attack runs/ordnance, etc... And the progress of each player is synced-up to everybody else's, allowing the playerbase to essentially fight a war against the three enemy factions.
It's a fairly old game released back in 2015 but still has a decent playerbase due to how well-liked it is, though the studio has very recently announced a sequel to it.

I still remember people telling me that Diablo Immortal "wasn't a big deal"
They called me a madman.
But I knew what this support for games like Immortal does. It invites disaster and greed.

Hey act man I know this is a couple days after the video initially came out, but since OverWatch 2 has said no more PVE mode, do you think this would be almost be a smart time to try and bring back like battleborn? For example, the thing that was originally competing with overwatch 1 which had multiple different heroes that could level up in different unique ways every match. Plus it had PVE PvP and essentially destiny 2's gambit before that actually came out as a hybrid PVE and PVP mode. I think it would be a good time to bring it back because it would scratch that hero shooter itch and then also still have the multiple modes that people want for competitiveness

Hit it on the head when he said OW2 was only about changing the monetization model and that the PVE was never actually a focus. Feel cheated honestly. I know it's really damn dumb to put hopes on Microsoft but if that merger ever goes through it's Blizzards last chance to get back to glory.

It’s crazy how hard it is for blizzard to do the bare minimum to keep their hype train and still manage to mess it up

What they should do is transfer the talent system from PvE in to PvP and let people actually build a wild character for themselves, it is blizzard after all, just have a WoW dev that made new Talent System help them balance it for pvp in where points can go

"We really wanted to put the new game with all new content in front of players. Especially the new microtransactions. That was actually the most important part, the new microtransactions. We're very excited for all the money this new microtransaction store will bring in, and we hope the bonus gameplay mode will encourage additional purchases. At least, that's what my bosses have been saying!"

I think that if they approach overwatch lore games like riot has done with riot forge they would have been a lot more successful as blizzard has the talent and the experience for doing so.

The phrase "blizzard was used to be known for" hits harder than i'd like to admit.

Well said on EVERY take. Like if someone’s gonna make a good PvE mode it’s gonna be blizzard. Like wtf!

Calling sir swag a "credible" news source is such an understatement.

As an aside, one of the reasons that terrible monetization schemes, bad business' practices and live service elements hit almost specifically pvp games (or the single player games they have require an online component to function) Is specifically because it gives the company complete control. Nothing is set in stone because a mandatory patch can completely change the game for any reason. They could one day make it so that you need to have invested x amount of money to see new features or delete any assets you have gained. One of the reasons i have always said pvp games are destined to die is that the game you bought might not be the same game after a month or a single patch update. Those features that drove you to the game could just be deleted and there is no way to go back to them. Or the company just decides its not worth it to keep investing in a game and literally just stop supporting it and it is truly dead. This sort of thing we are looking at here with blizzard could easily happen to any game no matter how beloved. Any studio can be bought and any team derailed.

Thanks for the video Boss Man. I really hope blizzard execs wake up and realize they're pulling a 343 : (

I can’t believe blizzard couldn’t have just delayed it, even if it was for a year and completed the pve content. They could’ve delayed the pvp for 6 months and released pve 6 months after that, I think that would’ve been reasonable and fans would’ve excepted it knowing they were getting a proper sequel

Hey act man, since this video no doubt put you in a cynical mood to make, I have a suggestion for something fun: there’s a new update to a huge mod for halo mcc on steam by inferno plus, and it has debatably as much content as the spv3 project. It’s quite impressive and hilarious to watch blind play throughs. The trailers on his channel are great too, but might spoil some of the surprise.
I won’t spoil it all , but let me tell you this: it seriously changes the balance of combat in some truly interesting ways. Snipers are now available sooner and have more ammo, but let’s just say you really need to lead your shots. Shotguns have reduced mag size but many more projectiles per shot… and recoil. The plasma rifle got some insane buffs and a new skin that calls back to the og of the og shooters. The plasma pistol now has at least 3 variants, the human pistol even more. There’s many more, and when you pickup weapons, be sure to read the names. there’s like 20 new warthogs and adjustments to all original vehicles. Best of all, the grenades. New grenades. They can umm… really change the dynamics of a fight. I’ll leave it at that.
Please like this so he sees.

The only way to make gaming companies like Blizzard stop doing crappy things like this to the fans, is to make sure you don't give them money or time. Deny them of that, and suddenly they'll stop and go back to trying to at least send out a product close to what they promised. Because right now people get promises, get hyped, get disappointed, complain, and then go right back to giving these companies money and time.

My theory is that Blizzard realized that PvE had an horrible work/profit ratio, since most of the game's transactions are driven by the need to show off in multiplayer

I've been seeing avgn referenced alot recently when talking about shitty games, its insane how much of a legacy he has when it comes to this stuff

The funniest thing about the entire situation to me is they honestly believed that a list of shitty pve promises would somehow negate the major promise they just broke...

I agree that they didn't have to make every character available on launch. Look at Street Fighter 6, that game is awesome and was very well-received by critics and fans alike, yet it's not like it released with a full roster. To me, their comment on making all characters available and fun to play came across a bit like a bold excuse. I'd be fine with 1 kickass mode, two or so maps, one support, one tank, three DPS heroes at launch, then slowly going from there.
The problem is, I don't think companies the size of Activision Blizzard will let their developers do that, because the higher-ups are not thinking in terms of players having fun, but how much money that could make them as well as pleasing their shareholders.
Games like Deep Rock Galactic and Risk of Rain on the other hand, they're smaller in scale and the devs are free to fool around and experiment with their games, and as a result those games are awesome.
Even Sea of Thieves, which I know you rightly criticized at launch, while still not having a solid gameplay loop you can experience in short bursts, has so much content and a sizeable community that enjoys the game, it's a pity something the size of Halo and Overwatch can't follow suit when it comes to multiplayer.

I have to agree on the whole monetization part of modern gaming. That's why it's very common that first and party developers don't actually make good solid games anymore without it being egregious with the modern monetization scheme that's fornite esque that almost every developer roots only for the sake of profits.
It kills it for me to play any game in modern era because of this whole unesscessary dynamic that screams no fun to the player even when you haven't spent enough for a game that retailed for $60 that is now $70. This needs to be rectified in the near future, it's bad enough as is that we as people with real busy lives are spending way too much money excessively on almost anything imagineable that aren't just exclusive to video games due to corporate greed and the people who buy into it.

My Prediction: they aren't going to see a big return on investment from OW2 after this big reveal, it only goes to 7+ because they don't have a plan for season 7 or 8, just a bunch of ideas they can pin, and they'll give up by Season 10 with regular updates.

Didn't even need to hear your full intro and I gave a thumbs up. I quit OW 1 back during Season 3. I had been a beta player, and even bought the Origins Edition, and by Season 3 of OW 1 I could already see a big negative shift in their direction, and most of the original hype players were already leaving the game due to the changes that had come.
I'm glad I stopped playing Blizzard games, and even WoW has not been what it used to be. I'd say since WOTLK, but I did have a little fun in Warlords of Draenor. I mostly enjoyed Garrosh, and I felt like he was done dirty by the end. #GarroshDidNothingWrong

My question is, Couldn't they milk the pve mode for as much money as possible by giving a very basic version of it where it is a handful of missions with no talent trees or anything at the beginning, and then do small updates every so often that would introduce talents and all that just to get people to return and spend more money on skins, battle passes and junk? I say the decision is based on greed, but it seems like more of low IQ type of greed with no foresight at all.

This is what you get when games are designed and developed with only shareholders in mind not the gamer
They needed to ship earliest possible due to previous quarters performance

Gotta love how they say “ we can’t keep our promises, so here’s a whole new set of promises “ 14:35

The community was literally:
*our expectations we're low, but holy $hit!*

I have a theory
Blizzard was originally going to make Overwatch 2 a game you had to pay for, but they knew they were going to scrap the PvE content and because of that, people would’ve been able to sue Blizzard for false advertisement. They then decided to make the game Free to Play

The most ironic thing about this is I would've happily spent $60 dollars for the full campaign of Overwatch 2 along with 20 of my friends. That's thousands of dollars not going to Blizzard and since they fully deleted Overwatch 1, we're not putting a single PENNY into Overwatch 2, we're not even installing it. They canceled the campaign for money reasons but they ended up pushing away potential sales and losing lots of money from the lack of sales 😂

I don't play overwatch but I was once a destiny player and its the same story there. Low-effort, asset-flipped live-service content makes more money than creative content with TLC. It's so upsetting that we live in a time were art, a medium solely meant to be an outlet for creativity and expression, has been infected with opportunistic slimeballs who seek to fill their coffers. Media today is like anti-art. it's simply a vehicle for cooperate greed and consumerism. It's so gross.

I feel like the "Give us something" attitude also played into the state of modern gaming, publishers are more worried about having anything in the hands of consumers, good or awful

I miss the days when game developers made actual games.

If Blizzard never apologized to the fans for wasting their time for announcing a mobile game, they're never to apologize for anything

It is amazing that it is acceptable to them to scrap the main promised content, and act like nothing happened. A new level of evil.

It's sad Overwatch had to fall so the sequel could rise. Overwatch 1 was such a good game. It was one of those rare PvP games that I felt I could still have fun without taking winning or losing too seriously. I unlocked so many cool cosmetics without ever spending money on the microtransactions, and now in Overwatch 2 I'm straight up a peasant if I don't buy the battle pass, which I don't, because I don't like paying money for something I won't get unless I commit to playing the game a lot within the time frame I'm given. Maybe I would have paid for the battle pass if this was Overwatch 1, as playing it was a reward in itself.
Then it's so strange to see the game changing so much over time in the name of balance, because they want to force Overwatch to be a big name in eSports, even though that's likely never happening, and this is a game that would have benefitted from being more arcadey, just for fun, like Valve's games. If it was too get highly competitive, like Counter Strike, it would be because players wanted it as they were getting super into the match. The game used to be 6v6, now it's 5v5, then there were iconic abilities like McCree's flashbang, then they nerfed cc so heavily which made Mei's ultimate very annoying to endure, then open queue versus role queue even though some roles would take so much time, adding so many DPS heroes when the hero pool for support is so limited, making Doomfist a tank who barely deals damage with his fists now, the list goes on.
The game even won the game-of-the-year award back in 2016, a game that now no longer exists.
In my eyes, Overwatch 2 was never about making the game better, or adding PvE content to diversify the gameplay loop, it was always a sequel made in the name of updating their business model, which makes Overwatch 2 the most corporate sequel in gaming ever, in my eyes.
Oh well, times they are a-changing.

It's not Overwatch 2 ... it's Overwatch too. Also it's crazy because Overwatch came from Titan and a over a decade ago I was working at Blizzard and got to see early footage of Titan... I left Blizzard long after I saw the writing on the wall and I should have left sooner but it's disgusting just how far they've fallen. I actually know the exact moment this all started to change drastically. I was a GM for WOW and previously we were told, and rightfully so, try to find a way to say yes to a player (within reason) and then we got a new Director of Customer Services. At that point more and more of the old guard were leaving. At first not a lot changed but then shortly after we had training on how to tell the player no. The idea was we didn't want their request clogging up the queue. Shortly after this we had a mass layoff despite making money hand over fist. I knew then that old Blizzard was dead and the accountants had taken over the company.

The fact that they made a system even MORE predatory than lootboxes is actually fucking insane to me. I know that a large chunk of the Acting Male's audience may not like Jim Stephanie Sterling but they're 100 percent correct when they say that microtransactions/lootboxes are ableist and prey on people with gambling addictions specifically

And the worst part about it is that people will play it and give Blizzard their money anyways. Which just perpetuates these kind of scummy practices

Us TF2 players SALUTE YOU! We are happy to have seal, And also, SAXTON HAAAAAAAALE. As such, Our condolences to your PVE mode.

Blizzard sure is the king of dissapointing its fans with misleading marketing! Definitely a studio worth making fun of!

Excelente juego. Las misiones de este video son mis favoritas. Me gustó!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the issue with games these days is that people ascribe value to game developers and publishers that are decades old and the reality is the talent that brought the titles of you teenage and young adulthood into existence probably aren't there anymore. In fact the company only has the name as any resemblance to that which produced the game you love from back in the day. It's obvious really but for some reason people don't make the connection

What irritates me is that they keep saying that with OW2 they added new heroes, new maps, new seasons... but it would have happened anyway without OW2 launching and probably with more regularity. They can't use that argument when it's not something new to OW2!

Un tema muy interesante tratado con solvencia y profesionalismo.