Blizzard gives a big, crucial update on the messy Overwatch 2 launch, a bevvy of new Pokemon Scarlet and Violet details, and the new Need for Speed looks… good??? All this on today’s GameSpot News.
Blizzard’s long-awaited Overwatch 2 arrived this week, but the launch didn’t exactly go to plan. Blizzard has apologized for the launch issues, saying it failed to meet the expectations of players and Blizzard itself. The studio also announced it is removing the phone registration requirement for many and provided an update on what’s being done to mitigate server issues to help players get into matches.
The list of known issues for Overwatch 2 currently stands at nearly 15,000, but there are a few key issues that Blizzard wanted to address right now, the first of which is the phone number requirement. Blizzard initially said the phone number requirement was part of an effort to combat cheating, but many people complained about it for a variety of reasons, and some prepaid phone plans did not work.
While most users will no longer require a phone number, accounts not connected to Battle.net and new accounts must still provide one.
Regarding stability, Blizzard just recently released a patch for the login experience that has already been shown to increase the “reliability” of logging in. Blizzard is now working on another server update to help reduce how often players become disconnected when they can manage to connect to a game.
Players have also reported that they are logging in to Overwatch 2 only to see that some or all of their items and data are missing. The good news is that no items or progress has been lost.
Blizzard said this issue comes from players not completing their account merge process. Another factor is that items are taking time to populate from the original Overwatch to Overwatch 2. “In all cases, no player data has been wiped or lost. We have a client-side fix for this that cannot be deployed until next week, so we are exploring server-side fixes and will provide updates as more information becomes available,” Blizzard said.
Blizzard went on to say that anyone who has unlocked a hero but that hero is still showing as locked should log back into the game, and this will resolve the issue “in most cases.” Players can open a support ticket if they are still experiencing problems.
Finally, Blizzard said all of Overwatch 2’s launch issues were exacerbated by the DDoS attacks against the game. “They did not directly cause any of these issues, they made the environment in which we work on these issues more challenging. We have not suffered any further attacks,” Blizzard said.
Blizzard is not just the name of a massive video game developer, but also the name of a move in Pokémon, which just revealed in a new trailer for the upcoming Scarlet and Violet titles that players that players will be able to craft their own TMs using resources dropped from Pokemon that have been caught or defeated in battle.
The Pokemon Company didn’t go too deep into how many “TMs” can be crafted or how to unlock recipes, but from the video shown off, it looks like you can create TMs based on classic Pokemon abilities using League Points, berries, and other materials. The rest of the video showed off more of the customization that you’ll be able to experiment with, Girafarig’s new evolution that transforms it into Farigiraf, and a sandwich-making activity.
Check out the full 15 minute trailer here on GameSpot’s YouTube.
