Meta is defined by imbalance. A particular character or comp becomes meta specifically because they’re objectively better than the other available options. The growing pickrates and winrates are a reflection of players gravitating to these options to exploit the unfair advantage they offer in the current patch.
When Jeff Kaplan said that hero 27 would be “meta changing,” this was an admission that Blizzard intended to knowingly release an OP character powerful enough to influence the meta. When that character went live, the death of Overwatch was etched in stone.
DPS who spent hundreds of hours perfecting their movement and aim now saw their value instantly washed away by an enemy’s effortless press of E and Q. Tanks who spent years learning how to make space for their teammates and mind-game opponents were now faced with a new hero who could do their jobs just as effectively after only 15 minutes of practice. Mercy players who honed their situational awareness and GA slingshot maneuver to evade flankers, Zen players who refined their discord and volley combo, Ana players who perfected their sleep darts to turn predators into prey…all these people had hard-earned skills that were now trivialized by a hero who could peel for herself with no mechanical skill and whose extreme survivability removed the need for gamesense.
And as for all those comp players who invested thousands of hours to painstakingly climb the ladder, showing an endless devotion to Blizzard and their creation? Many of them felt like all their effort was a waste of time now that with hero 27, nearly anyone could rapidly ascend to the rank of their dreams with no gitting gud required.
Brigitte could well be the biggest slap in the face a developer outside of Konami has perpetrated against their own community in years. It’s hard to say why Blizzard did this. To expand their userbase by better targeting consumers outside the traditional FPS market? To increase sales through free weekends by appealing to newcomers with the positive reinforcement that accompanies an easy win hero? To change the meta before OWL play became repetitive and stale for viewers? We can really only speculate as to why Blizzard released Brig in a deliberately OP state. But whatever the reason is, it’s something Blizzard values more than fair competitive play.
The result of this release was exactly as expected. Near the start of last year, Blizzard bragged about Overwatch’s 40+ million users. Well they’re not bragging about their playerbase size anymore, and they’re probably not going to anytime soon. It’s no secret that players have left in droves since Brig’s release. A dwindling playerbase means less lootbox sales, which has contributed in some form to the continuous plummeting of Activision Blizzard’s stock. Funding to Overwatch has clearly been reduced, which is the reason we now get recycled seasonal events and have no new core game modes yet.
Within the next year or two, I expect the game to go F2P with monetization through a season pass or subscription. Once the dev releases whatever new heroes and modes they’re currently making, the game will essentially go on life support with future updates being only balance changes and cosmetics, as Blizzard focuses the bulk of their resources on new IPs.
I still love Overwatch and play it most nights. It’s my all-time favorite PvP game and it’s far from dead. But it is dying. And it will die—not because players lost interest as the game grew old, but because Blizzard has failed to learn an age-old lesson: when you try too hard to create something that appeals to everyone, you eventually appeal to no one.
Those are my honest, unfiltered thoughts on the game right now. I’d love to be wrong. I’d love for Blizzard to unveil an amazing solution that saves Overwatch and restores my faith in them, but I won’t keep my hopes up.
