A Heartfelt Message to the Overwatch Development Team from a Concerned Console Player

General Discussion
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[WARNING! Huge wall of text incoming.]

Are you guys on the Overwatch Development Team REALLY listening to the feedback of your Console Players on your own forums, as the game masters have such stated to me time and time again in recent tickets that I’ve filed? If so, then why don’t you guys take 15 minutes out of a single day to respond to our feedback and tell us your guys’ plans for us on Console? It’s hard for us Console Players to tell if you TRULY are listening to our feedback if you guys don’t at least take the time to tell us why something can or can’t be done. It’s been 4 and a half months since you guys last responded to your Console Players on your own forums. Don’t you guys think that’s a little pathetic? At least give your Console Players some form of transparency and tell us your guys’ IMMEDIATE plans. As in, what you guys have planned for Consoles SPECIFICALLY within the short, medium, and long terms*.

There’s simply too many concerns that I can list that I know you guys are capable of handling for Overwatch on the Consoles. If you guys aren’t at least taking the time to respond to your Console Players, then it’s hard to justify otherwise that you guys are NOT treating your Console Player-base as second class citizens, rather than as valued members of the Overwatch Community. As of right now, it’s very easy to tell that the feedback of us, your Overwatch Console Players, feels undervalued, given the lack of responses and overall direct transparency.

To list some of the main concerns:

  • Lack of a Console PTR**
  • Lack of OFFICIAL Console E-Sports Representation***
  • Lack of other Console-Specific Balancing****
  • Mouse and Keyboard Users*****
  • Missing QOL options on Console, which are ALREADY LIVE ON PC******
  • Other missing QOL options on Console*******
  • Lack of a way for Console Players to appeal in-game bans********

Perfection is not being expected here, that’s simply too much. What IS being expected of this is just some transparency to your Console Players in your guys’ future plans for us. Is this too much to ask for?

Note to other Console Players:
Keep in mind that I did not mention anything about smurfs until this bit right here. I know that they are an even larger issue on Console than PC, don’t get me wrong. But this problem lies in the designs of the Consoles themselves, and as such it’s more or less out of the control of the Overwatch Development Team. However, there’s a lot more things that are IN the control of the Overwatch Development Team that they CAN address.

Other notes. Please read these before you reply with regards to said notes!
*I capitalized ‘immediate’ and ‘specifically’ on purpose. Yes, some things take time to implement; that’s fine, and inarguable. But there’s been way too much time allotted to give something even as simple as a response at the absolute least.

**Both Sony and Microsoft have been very flexible with Blizzard, and Jeff has even admitted to this himself as well as the fact that this is something that can be done. Yes it would come at the cost of slower balance due to certification. But the pros would definitely outweigh the cons. Examples, it would help the Overwatch Team develop better connections with their Console Players, it would better help them get PTR Feedback from us on Console, and it would help them nail down any potential Console-specific bugs, among others. And don’t try to argue to me that Sony/Microsoft charge for patch updates. For one, Sony/Microsoft only charge these days for patch updates if certifications fail multiple times. For two, if you think that money is a problem for a company as massive as Blizzard, then you should look somewhere else.
EDIT [Made on 6-5-18]: Both Sony and Microsoft actually offer same day certifications, so there’s actually even less cons on this now:

***If Blizzard gives even a small fraction of attention to Console that’s similar to their focus on Overwatch League, it would take off. Console gamers are anything but uninterested in E-Sports. The success of Halo, Gears of War, and Call of Duty with MLG has proven that. Not to mention even Paladins and Smite on Consoles as well. And don’t try to say that I’m saying this as a means for me to get in for E-Sports; because you’d be wrong. I’m a high-plat to low diamond player and haven’t truly played Comp since Season 4; trust me, I know I wouldn’t be able to. I’m saying this as a means for OTHER Console Players to get in for E-Sports. And yes, ‘official’ was also capitalized on purpose.

****Seriously, Console-Specific Balancing was promised on Day 1. And what do we have that’s different? Torbjorn and Symmetra Turret nerfs that can honestly be completely reverted now, and Ally Aim Assist for Ana. Now, I will agree that the game is not too out of balance on Console. But there’s definitely some changes that can be made to Consoles specifically to improve said balance. I’d give examples of such changes that can be done, but that’s for a different thread. Although, I’ll say that Ana, Widowmaker, and Pharah come to my mind as examples. Likewise, I can also agree that Ana needs help on PC as well; however, she needs even more help on Console than PC to be able to even remotely contest for a team spot than all of the other healers on Console, and even Symmetra as well. Yeah, her Console pickrate for comp is just as bad, and at some higher level ranks, even worse, than Symmetra.

*****It’s solvable on Consoles before anyone states, given Blizzard’s current stance for it on Consoles; and I’ve already covered this in a different thread. Feel free to read it at your leisure: {MEGATHREAD} In-Game Bans on Console Aren't Resolved by Sony/MS & M&K can be Resolved on both Systems

******To name some examples for this: FOV Slider, Text Chat, showing what mode your friends are playing in the friends list, requiring permission to join group, Region Select, the ability to hide chat, an option to disable the “Are you with us?” cinematic, Hold to Crossfade for Lucio, among others. And yes, keyboards used for text chat and keyboards used for advantage in conjunction with a mouse are two different things. It’s already difficult to convey messages in voice chat given how few people that are actually using it on Consoles. And yes, ‘already live on pc’ was also capitalized on purpose.

*******To name some examples for this: The ability to play Console Overwatch in all of PC’s 13 playable languages without any issues (half of them will still cause Overwatch to play in English, despite the fact that the Consoles themselves already support these languages), Group Privacy settings, Sliders for things like dead zones and magnetism, among others.

********I covered this in the same thread linked above, in the first half of the post. For example, Assume that an account gets banned in-game for Overwatch on PS4, yet said account can still play other online games on PSN just fine. That account has literally no way to appeal it, no matter how wrongful said ban is. If that accounts files a ticket with Blizzard attempting to appeal it, they will tell them to go to Sony/Microsoft. If that account files a ticket with Sony/Microsoft attempting to appeal it, they will tell them to go to Blizzard, because they don’t handle in-game bans; only Console-wide bans. So who is in the wrong on this front as a result, given the example case noted above? It’s Blizzard that’s in the wrong; Sony/Microsoft both let Developers manage their game how they want, and they have no influence in things like in-game bans. Yet they leave their Console Players in the loop that nothing is being done for them.

Thank you for taking the time to listen, and I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your day.

Mod edit: Calling out individual developers or the development team in your title or post is against our forum guidelines. Doing this may result in a temporary suspension of forum posting privileges. Please focus on discussion of the feedback/suggestion in your topic.

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Once again Eternity, I’m willing to follow and support this cause as long as it’s still standing.

…and for anybody who feels the need to disparage and trash on this thread or Console players with the telltale “Just get a PC.”, “Why waste time & resources on the inferior platform?”, “Deal with it, PC had to do the same with ports”…

…just don’t.

We’re already fed-up and tired from trying to push this crusade, we really don’t need the extra bouts of negativity and what not right now.

So please, just try to be courteous and lend a helping hand.

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It took me 3 hours to type this up :yum:

This is about as peaceful as I can make this thread. I mean, I could’ve probably been way more toxic, but I wasn’t. I wanted to try keeping it as peaceful as possible. Another Console Player Uprising is the last thing I want to see happening.

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I would be happy if they just fixed the deadzone…

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As always, well said. Unfortunately I hold out little hope that an official response will appear. The last dev post as of this post was May 29th, one week ago.

Seems like they are ignoring everyone on the boards, not just us console players. Maybe everyone is on vacation?

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I hope this isn’t the case…

If it is, then oh boy am I going to be ready to go ham on somebody…

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In terms of balancing, people keep crying wolf of lack of console balancing but in all honesty in the last 2 years the only thing people have asked to change or be different is pharah and nothing more.

Also in regards to M&K its not that bad, even more so if you are diamond and below. It is most likely smurf playing at the elo.

I still dont get why people want PTR Console for OW, I dont see the impact hell I havent even seen the real impact of it for PC apart from removing bugs here and there.

However the other points I can agree with and the fact that there is smore kind of lack of communication or update for console OW

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That’s why I made sure to give some examples of some characters that could use some balance tweaks. Like I said though, I didn’t give any potential changes because that’s a topic for another thread.

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Sony and Microsoft both now offer same day certification passes. theres no way activision/blizzard doesn’t have acces to this.

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So here goes my explanation for PTR justification on console.

For one! Before I go into further detail on this allow me to say that people often use thw argument that console players should be happy that we get the patches live the same day than PC does. Honestly? I couldn’t care less of having same day patches if the consequence of that is that we don’t get any console changes.

Now second: I honestly don’t think console specific balance needs to happen. Yes pharah is strong on console but she’s still something you can handle. Yes widow will generally be inferior on console but good widows are still out there even on console. However if they ever wanted to make specific changes or try it out, they could do this on this console specific ptr. And now I’ll het i to the PTR version i could see working for console.

NEW CONSOLE PTR:
This mode would be added to arcade as a permanent game mode. Only in this mode would you have specific changes brought to consoles. We wouldn’t get all the PTR patches like PC but rather on already predetermined patch dates ( for example when we get a patch for an event or luve balance changes, they add a ptr mode to console arcade as well, which could probably be removed eithout an update aftsrwards just like arcade modes come and go right now.

Why would this ptr version be useful on console?

Honestly, have you seen what happened to linear ramp? It was completely broken when it came out during the uprising event last year and it was only in september that they came up with a ‘fix’ after we complained and ran wild on the forums for 5 months.

In this ptr they could add functions and transfer some from pc and use the ptr like they do on pc: see if something works bugfree before oushing it to live.

We need to forget about pte being a test server to see if something is balanced or not. We know blizzard doesn’t use it in that way. Their goal is to see if something works from a technical standpoint.

Let’s not forget we got push to talk and other options which didn’t work at all for what? A whole month?

I think a ptr mode for console could be extremely useful. And even in such a minor way as i suggest it. If we were to get a real ptr mode like pc but attached to arcade mode or even gamebrowser mode (like a developper’s custom game) that would be awesome.

But hey even ptr is not the priority. I would just appreciate some transparency at this point…

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I’m kinda sorry to say that console players are truly and actually second class citizens (this is coming from a former console player) but this probably isn’t Blizzard’s intention. Most of the issues you addressed are pretty much caused by complications in negotiating with Sony & Microsoft.

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There’s lots of legal and corporate agenda underneath that the players usually don’t see. And they make your concerns not worth the time and money to address. It’s sad, and I generally think releasing the game on console (and also buying it on my part) was a big mistake.

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I agree it was a mistake on the part of Blizzard. I don’t know what was going on in their heads initially of releasing it because they sounded so motivated and revolutionary in how they would approach their console playerbase and ended up being worse than Bungie/Activision/EA in that regard, and that’s an achievement I would not be proud of.

The fault is theirs for raising expectations and then not only failing to meet them but to ignore us completely and not even try to explain, NOTHING!

I will switch back to PC once I’m done with college and moving around all the time. However I doubt that Blizzard made any losses by making this “port”. And I don’t know if OW will still be doing well in 2020 or 2021 when the next gen consoles will release, but if Blizzard wants to actually do another port and actually make money of it, I suggest they get started soon on addressing their console playerbase.

What they don’t seem to realise is that they are shooting themselves in the foot with this behavior. I know I’m not the only one who is thinking that never again will I buy a Blizzard game on console, be it Diablo, WoW, OW2, or whatever games they will make, (unless it would be a console exclusive but we all now that won’t happen ever) because I know they will not follow through afterwards. That’s still an important chunk of potential customers they’re shutting the door on right now. Unless they plan to do that anyway but I don’t understand why they would do that…

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This is where you’d be wrong on a lot of the items that I have listed.

This doesn’t take certifications to do.

I will agree this takes certifications to do. However, even Jeff has admitted himself that this is something that can indeed be done on Console. Take note as well of the edit that I put in under this note. Both Sony and Microsoft offer same day certifications.

This doesn’t take certifications to do.

I will agree that this does take certifications to do. But do you know what this also takes? Blizzard actually taking the time to TRY LISTENING to their Console Players on this. And don’t tell me that they don’t have the time to respond to us. They’ve clearly shown many a time before that they have the time to respond to us. And do you want to know how long I’ve been trying to address their LACK OF TRANSPARENCY to us? I’ll give you that answer: 6 MONTHS. In fact, the fact that I somehow haven’t lost my patience by now or caused another Console Player Uprising (which I would have no qualms about doing if I was given the justification to do so, keep in mind) shows that I do indeed care.

It is strictly the decision of the Developers, the Overwatch Team that is, to decide what is and isn’t allowed. So they don’t want M&K being used on Console at all? Yeah, they most certainly CAN do that. Sony and Microsoft have no influence on this; they empower the Developers to manage their game how they want to.

Do I really need to say anything on these that I haven’t already said? If it’s already been proven such items have been implemented in past games before (both from older and the current Console Gens alike), and ESPECIALLY if such things are already live on PC, then why deprive your Console Players of such items to improve QOL?

And I don’t really need to say anything that’s already been said within the post on this, so yeah.

But they released it on both Consoles; even at the same time as PC. So they need to either:
Take the time and follow up on our feedback and THEIR promises, or they should never make the promise to begin with. One response is not, and never has been, a lot to ask for.

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Certifications are only one part of my stance on this. Esports representation on console honestly sounds silly to me. Why create a separate league for the same game except people use gamepads instead of M&K? I honestly wouldn’t really care much for that. It’s already established that the game is already designed and balanced around the PC version. So professional esports has to stay there.

Which may beg the question, why not create a separate balance scheme for console? Well, if I was Blizzard I wouldn’t waste my time. Balancing is already time consuming and difficult as it is for one version of the game. Also, the life of console games are numbered. Soon Microsoft and Sony will come up with a new generation, and it’s another round of hard labor for Blizzard to create a product that can only be a fraction as good as the already existing PC version.

Lastly, your “You PROMISED and WE PAID so you better do something about it or else” attitude is a bit too consumer-centric for me lol. Yay America? That’s true, they made “promises” they never fulfilled (although I’ve never seen any explicitly unfulfilled promises thus far) and yeah we do deserve what we were promised, but sometimes there are acceptable mistakes not even big companies can fix. I think Blizzard is trying but there’s literally nothing they can do; console’s too much a waste of time. I don’t mean to sound harsh or indifferent but face it lol you (and I) made a mistake buying console. It really just turned out to be a sampler of the actual game which is on PC. Either we settle with that or maybe buy the PC version. Nevertheless I’m sure they take all our feedback into consideration, so I’m still glad this thread exists.

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Console players aren’t the only ones they don’t care about, I guess they just care less, which is mind blowing for me.

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We don’t need a full separate league. Having the tools and approval to do small tournaments (either online or LAN) on console would suffice. Dealing with the draconian tournament restrictions that are in place currently make it nearly impossible. Prize pools are restricted to almost nothing, and when they can be run has to scheduled around OWL and the world cup.

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on Lack of other Console-Specific Balancing**** we dont really need this its good they way it is… now on adding things like get to the point or txt chat etc im with you on that. i like that what i can do on pc works on console and vice versa.

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righthere described what I was looking at specifically with regards to this perfectly. So for context, Reference his post here.

I also am the creator of This Console Megathread, and this one explains some parts to this thread and others, and likewise is also trying to get the Developers’ lack of direct transparency to us addressed.

Even third party Overwatch Content Creators have given mention to, or even talked about, that thread at some point. This means that said content creators are also doing an even better job at shedding light on these concerns than Blizzard is. Heck, Diablo 3 Players are still getting Developer Responses these days; and yes, even the Console Players too. How long has that game been out? 6 years. I will agree that their last response to Console Players on their forums was 3 months ago, as I took the time to research this. But even then, that’s still less time than the amount of time that has passed since the last time the Overwatch Team responded to Console Players on their own forums (by about a month and a half).

Everybody does have their preferences; you chose PC in the end, and I chose Console. We all have our own preferences and choices, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

I, like many others, also want to believe that the Overwatch Team is listening to our feedback. However, given the 4 and a half month time span since the last time they responded to us (referring to their Console Players), I feel as though that they really are NOT trying to listen to us, and that they’ve just dropped the support for it outside of the occasional patch. Plus, everyone has a limit to their patience. And I don’t think anyone wants to see another Console Player Uprising happen; not even me, even though I would have no qualms about supporting one if it was to happen.

As I noted within the OP, I can likewise agree that the game is not too out of balance on Console. But there’s definitely some changes that can be made, provided they actually take the time to look at us.

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Ok but like…what if console users ARE second class citizens. My impression has always been that pc was their focus and it was easy enough to port to consoles that they decided to give that market an option to play as well, but it was only ever a convenience, not a focus.

The amount of effort console players on this forum go through to get blizzard to pay attention to them continually borders on pathetic. Overwatch is a PC game, and it’s probably better if you come to grips with that privately, on your own time, rather than publicly on this forum.