Post launch report on Overwatch. Finally Blizzard succeeded again after a few misses.

[BenBos]

I woke up, washed, ate cornflakes and did what I do every morning at the table: a quick view on the news/tablet ... and whoops ... Overwatch is number one on Twitch ...

I don't play Overwatch, not yet and I doubt I will ever do it in a serious way as my old age prevents me from competing with the young champs of eye handcoordination.

But my 23 year old son does ... and quite frankly this game kills it. It is refreshing how fast, smooth and fun this game looks. As I played video games from 1978 onwards... in Arcades through the whole Atari800/Amiga/Nintendo/PC/Sony craze ... I have never seen a shooter that was this frantic. Yep, I finished Out Run with one hand and eyes closed back then in my high days, but this avalanche of twists and bolts seen in Overwatch far surpasses any modern day video game.

My impressions and most predictions never go wrong: Blizzard has a winner again.

And it was about time: SC2 drives on too old mechanics these days, Heroes came much too late on the market and everyone seems to loose in too long matches, while Hearthstone is in a downward spiral of yearly torn up cards/money we all know so well from the CCG industry... I won't even mention Diablo3, which is at the moment one of the worst useless games in existence. I rather play WoW in Iron Mode with 200 others on this planet than fight one more blob in D3...

------

The question is though ... how will Blizzard keep making money from this game ? I guess by launching yearly expansions at 40 dollars per "box". That's still not enough compared to WoW's high days, but at least it will be more than welcome in these post WoW bleeding days...

Great job for the development team and another crown jewel for Kaplan. 2 gigantic hits in a row Jeff! Grtz !

[socialmaker]

Although I agree it looks like a fun game i think it will fade out pretty fast. Starcraft and Diablo have huge fanbases which I don't see happening for a kekshooter.

[Alski]

I woke up, washed, ate cornflakes and did what I do every morning at the table: a quick view on the news/tablet ... and whoops ... Overwatch is number one on Twitch ...

If you've been around on twitch for a while you should know by now that it will drop off significantly after a while, give it 3-4 weeks and i doubt it will be #1 anymore, although it's probably going to stay ahead of other FPS on there.

The question is though ... how will Blizzard keep making money from this game ? I guess by launching yearly expansions at 40 dollars per "box". That's still not enough compared to WoW's high days, but at least it will be more than welcome in these post WoW bleeding days...

Making more money of It will probably come in the form of individual character arcs and a shop full of cosmetic changes.

[Hottage]

I woke up, washed, ate cornflakes and did what I do every morning at the table: a quick view on the news/tablet ... and whoops ... Overwatch is number one on Twitch ...

It was #1 because it was just released, it's already fallen back behind a few other games, hovering around 3 or 4.

Making more money of It will probably come in the form of individual character arcs and a shop full of cosmetic changes.

You can buy "booster packs" containing up to 50 of the level-up loot crates, allowing you to try your luck at a rare cosmetic item faster.

Note that what you get from the boxes is still random, and everything is obtainable through in-game play.

[Stormspellz]

I'm sure the cash shop will keep giving income spikes to the game, with new release of skins and other cosmetics, could also see single player campaign micro transactions (similar to the ghost missions of sc2) wouldn't be happy about it but capitalism and all that.

[Jessicka]

Although I agree it looks like a fun game i think it will fade out pretty fast. Starcraft and Diablo have huge fanbases which I don't see happening for a kekshooter.

Well that's just like... You realise Counter Strike, Doom, Unreal, and Quake each had enormous following for many years? Lolshooters have been some of the biggest franchises in the business.

[Deleted]

Well that's just like... You realise Counter Strike, Doom, Unreal, and Quake each had enormous following for many years? Lolshooters have been some of the biggest franchises in the business.

Each of these games was groundbreaking (tech- or gameplay-wise) in some important way. Also, all of these happened 10-20 years ago. What's so special about OW? How is it innovative?

Serious question, I'm not playing it, my time with FPSs has passed 15-ish years ago with old CS.

[BenBos]

It was #1 because it was just released, it's already fallen back behind a few other games, hovering around 3

Well I just looked it up again and for 2 hours it is in this strange position of number 1 still. 9:02. Of course this will change during the day, but I think it has something extra that clearly D3 and Heroes didn't have when they launched:

A number one position on Twitch a full 6 days after launch, beating LoL.

Perhaps we see a changing of the guard as LoL is really getting old too and can't compete on graphics or action either. It will take a while but I think the DOTA scene is not capable of generating more players with this old engine. Heroes can't compete either.

We will see...

- - - Updated - - -

Each of these games was groundbreaking (tech- or gameplay-wise) in some important way. Also, all of these happened 10-20 years ago. What's so special about OW? How is it innovative?

Serious question, I'm not playing it, my time with FPSs has passed 15-ish years ago with old CS.

Exactly my thoughts ... before I saw my son playing it. I tried with my old hands, but Dear God ... Team Fortress looks like being programmed by an amateur compared to OW.

The difference is HUGE. I could't say that with Heroes really (compared to other Dotas).

[Very Tired]

Well to be fair, it was Blizzard's first attempt at an FPS, so you can't blame them for coming up short. They tried to do things their own way, like competitive play, despite the competitive crowd happy with that way it was. Given that and the current balancing mechanic I don't see Overwatch succeeding as much as their previous IPs.

[BenBos]

Well to be fair, it was Blizzard's first attempt at an FPS, so you can't blame them for coming up short. They tried to do things their own way, like competitive play, despite the competitive crowd happy with that way it was. Given that and the current balancing mechanic I don't see Overwatch succeeding as much as their previous IPs.

Nice try, but Overwatch is killing these old franchises right now in front of your eyes on Twtich

And after seeing the game in action, I knew it within 5 minutes. This is a killer. I shrugged when I listened to Scot Johnson on the WoW podcast a few months ago. Yeah big deal, another shooter.

Now I understand the guy.

[Very Tired]

Nice try, but Overwatch is killing these old franchises right now in front of your eyes on Twtich

Right, the game that just came out is more popular than the games which have been out for years, who would have guessed.

[BenBos]

Right, the game that just came out is more popular than the games which have been out for years, who would have guessed.

That didn't happen with D3 and Heroes 6 days after their launch ... And I completely understand why.

[cago]

It happens with all "big games". Even single player games like Witcher or Fallout were at the top for few weeks..

[Very Tired]

That didn't happen with D3 and Heroes 6 days after their launch ... And I completely understand why.

Because they didn't go all out with the marketing on those games?

[Jessicka]

Each of these games was groundbreaking (tech- or gameplay-wise) in some important way. Also, all of these happened 10-20 years ago. What's so special about OW? How is it innovative?

Serious question, I'm not playing it, my time with FPSs has passed 15-ish years ago with old CS.

The whole approach. It's not a grimdark or psuedo realistic wargame, and while classes aren't new; characters and heroes are. It makes for a much more approachable and friendly way of killing each other. The pace is fast, and the short 10 minute drop-in drop-out games are casual friendly, and makes losing or dying less of a big deal which really seems to be tempering toxicity - I've encountered literally one player this week who I'd consider 'toxic' and that was for endlessly spamming the 'capture the objective' emote.

I played a lot of those afore mentioned titles pretty much to death; such that when I saw OW at Blizzcon I thought 'Meh... It's a TF clone', had no interest in it and didn't follow development as I really thought I was done with the genre; but I gave it a try in the open Beta and the layers of polish and improvements on those titles are just absolutely immense.

[Deleted]

OW its just the latest trend, go check out the bottom half of the first page of OW streamers, most of them are viewbotting.
Idd argue that more than half of the games viewers right now are bots, but it has nothing to do with the game itself, its twitch fault.
This happenes every time a 'big' game comes out, tons of people try to viewbot their way into becoming a twitch streamer.

Remember when HOTS came out, everyone was OMG MORE VIEWERS THEN DOTA 2 AND LOL, go and try and find it where its at now, 200 total viewers.

Im pretty sure OW will remain a top10 viewed game, but no way in hell 1 month from now its gonna be where its at now.

[BenBos]

OW its just the latest trend, go check out the bottom half of the first page of OW streamers, most of them are viewbotting.
Idd argue that more than half of the games viewers right now are bots, but it has nothing to do with the game itself, its twitch fault.
This happenes every time a 'big' game comes out, tons of people try to viewbot their way into becoming a twitch streamer.

Remember when HOTS came out, everyone was OMG MORE VIEWERS THEN DOTA 2 AND LOL, go and try and find it where its at now, 200 total viewers.

Im pretty sure OW will remain a top10 viewed game, but no way in hell 1 month from now its gonna be where its at now.

Twitch "bots" LOL. I guess that must be a new invented term then... You might as sell say that these streamers pay themselves ...

Listen in NO way Hots or the latest SC2 expansion or even WoW expansion made it to the top of this Twitch list a week after launch.

So nope, it is simply not true what you just posted. These games were top 5-8 hot, not directly competing for first place. Just look at the "hot" and latest Total War title of Warhammer... Top 18?

The last game with such an impact was Hearthstone and indeed that game can be considered a stable top 5 game by now.

----

What convinced me though is not the Twitch ranking. It was the actual in game fighting that I saw ... and now Twitch simply confirms that what I saw struck a nerve with others too.

And the upcoming esports is not even installed ...

It is pretty much clear we have a stayer here for top ranked gameS on Twitch and probably esports too.

I guess OW was the reason why ATVI bought itself in the esports scenes.

OW compared to TF stands miles above it and I think Jeff Kaplan had a big say in it (as I already stated).


I really thought Overwatch would just be a drop in an ocean of shooters, well it is more, you realise that the moment you see it played.

[Deleted]

Twitch "bots" LOL. I guess that must be a new invented term then... You might as sell say that these streamers pay themselves ...

Listen in NO way Hots or the latest SC2 expansion or even WoW expansion made it to the top of this Twitch list a week after launch.

So nope, it is simply not true what you just posted. These games were top 5-8 hot, not directly competing for first place. Just look at the "hot" and latest Total War title of Warhammer... Top 18?

The last game with such an impact was Hearthstone and indeed that game can be considered a stable top 5 game by now.

----

What convinced me though is not the Twitch ranking. It was the actual in game fighting that I saw ... and now Twitch simply confirms that what I saw struck a nerve with others too.

And the upcoming esports is not even installed ...

It is pretty much clear we have a stayer here for top ranked gameS on Twitch and probably esports too.

I guess OW was the reason why ATVI bought itself in the esports scenes.

OW compared to TF stands miles above it and I think Jeff Kaplan had a big say in it (as I already stated).


I really thought Overwatch would just be a drop in an ocean of shooters, well it is more, you realise that the moment you see it played.

On release HOTS was #1 on twitch, and if you think twitch viewbotters aint a thing, im sorry to say, but you have no clue about twitch at all, im not gonna spend 1 hour explaining these things to you since Google is still a thing.

And you're sirously comparing Warhammer with Overwatch ? hmm, i dont recall seeing warhammer adds in the london tube, or warhammer adds in nearly every site. If ur not a warhammer fan, you would have no clue and wouldnt care about a new one, on the other hand, everyone and his grandma whos been on the internet for the past 2 months has at least heard about Overwatch.

And what competition did Hearthstone have when it came out ? the only one i could think was real Magic TCG streams that only fans watch.

But i dont know why u got so triggered, i even said that OW will be a top 10 game, just not as high as it is now.

[Stormspellz]

OW its just the latest trend, go check out the bottom half of the first page of OW streamers, most of them are viewbotting.
Idd argue that more than half of the games viewers right now are bots, but it has nothing to do with the game itself, its twitch fault.
This happenes every time a 'big' game comes out, tons of people try to viewbot their way into becoming a twitch streamer.

Remember when HOTS came out, everyone was OMG MORE VIEWERS THEN DOTA 2 AND LOL, go and try and find it where its at now, 200 total viewers.

Im pretty sure OW will remain a top10 viewed game, but no way in hell 1 month from now its gonna be where its at now.

Overwatch isn't another game in and overstatuated market like hots, yes its a shooter but the closest similar game is tf2, while hots was going against the giants of lol and dota, its the reverse situation of every mmo vs wow.

And if twitch views is your only metric on if a game is "successful" then that leaves me rather perplexed.

[Phookah]

I woke up, washed, ate cornflakes and did what I do every morning at the table: a quick view on the news/tablet ... and whoops ... Overwatch is number one on Twitch ...

I don't play Overwatch, not yet and I doubt I will ever do it in a serious way as my old age prevents me from competing with the young champs of eye handcoordination.

But my 23 year old son does ... and quite frankly this game kills it. It is refreshing how fast, smooth and fun this game looks. As I played video games from 1978 onwards... in Arcades through the whole Atari800/Amiga/Nintendo/PC/Sony craze ... I have never seen a shooter that was this frantic. Yep, I finished Out Run with one hand and eyes closed back then in my high days, but this avalanche of twists and bolts seen in Overwatch far surpasses any modern day video game.

My impressions and most predictions never go wrong: Blizzard has a winner again.

And it was about time: SC2 drives on too old mechanics these days, Heroes came much too late on the market and everyone seems to loose in too long matches, while Hearthstone is in a downward spiral of yearly torn up cards/money we all know so well from the CCG industry... I won't even mention Diablo3, which is at the moment one of the worst useless games in existence. I rather play WoW in Iron Mode with 200 others on this planet than fight one more blob in D3...

------

The question is though ... how will Blizzard keep making money from this game ? I guess by launching yearly expansions at 40 dollars per "box". That's still not enough compared to WoW's high days, but at least it will be more than welcome in these post WoW bleeding days...

Great job for the development team and another crown jewel for Kaplan. 2 gigantic hits in a row Jeff! Grtz !

"After a few misses"
You sure do measure success weird, huh?