Overwatch should offer a way to be played without requiring a connection to centralized servers, which can be shut down, as occurred in China with all Blizzard games.
An understandable starting point is that singleplayer game modes, such as the ‘Practice range’ or the main menu, should not require an internet connection.
For multiplayer game modes, a peer-to-peer option isn’t strictly necessary (though it would be perfect for ‘Custom games’). Providing LAN support would be enough.
In a PvP online multiplayer…
Right.
Yes, especially in games like this.
Its “multiplayer nature” is no excuse for denying players access, as happened in China.
Splatoon says they can do it.
I have no doubt they can. But it would be dead, and a waste of their time and resources.
In the case of china, it still needed a distribution deal with a local company. This kind of idea wouldn’t of helped them.
This is honestly a completely ridiculous request. It’s an online PvP Game with no single player modes that lacks static content. There would be no point
Counter-Strike is also an online PvP game, but it brings players the option to play with a LAN connection and create their own private servers.
What about ‘Practice range’, ‘Tutorial’, ‘Practice Vs. AI’, ‘Invasion’ (CPU) and ‘Hero Mastery’?
I think an offline mode is technically possible, but what’s the point. The game is primarily online multiplayer. The single player modes you mentioned are dead. Practice range can’t be called a mode. It’s a tool.
Valve provides LAN options, but they have a different gaming philosophy.
Every game studio has its own principles.
Most gamers quit games that are no longer supported anyway.
Counter-Strike is also garbage and having those options actually makes it worse.
All those still NEED online access. Those things are not in the code they are servers. And practice vs AI still has teammates who are not AI as do the PvE elements. You still need authentication and servers to mange those.
Peer to peer is actually really really bad and would cheapen the entire experience by making a lot of issues worse. You do not want this even though you think you do.
Worse in what sense? You can’t criticize something without giving reasons why you think it’s wrong.
That’s exactly what I am asking to change. The game should get an update at some moment to make the things that are currently linked to servers an option to play them offline. The Invasion bots are already programmed, the CPU of VS. AI is programmed (you can test a match of bots vs bots in a custom game).
I want to add that the current problem with a 20.000 player queue to just open the main menu is a great example of the problem that I am pointing out.
Having servers setup that way opens you up way further to hacking and cheating. It also makes the net code worse.
No, it absolutely should not. That is a dumb idea.
Some people in the forums just know the words “No”, “Impossible”, “No way”, “Horrible”.
Lmao open your minds try to search a little.
I know how it works. It’s bad game design and will leave the entire game in a worse space. I’m sorry but your idea is one of the worst ones I’ve ever heard
It’s a horrible idea. No. Impossible. No way.
it’s a multiplayer game. The use of LAN would be EXTREMELY limited. besides we already have custom game modes with the custom browser.
Adding a p2p client would be nice so long as players are aware that p2p is subject to host latency issues, dishonest hosts that Lag switch their own connection, and the ease of ability to hack the other players on the connection.
give it, let us host community servers in 10-15 years.
they’ll obviously also have every single skin enabled 
You say that as if Overwatch 2 doesn’t have a huge amount of cheaters right now.
https://esports.gg/news/overwatch/overwatch-2-bans-over-800000-cheaters-and-responds-to-smurfs/
It is impossible to stop cheaters, the only thing you can do is to ban them once they have caused the damage.
And it’s not even comparable to allowing people to play ‘Invasion’ or ‘Practice Range’ offline (solo) or allowing LAN play in an isolated space that only people nearby can access.
It’s better than having nothing when servers close, or when the internet in a specific place doesn’t work or isn’t reliable enough for a match.
You might think that it won’t happen, but it literally happened with this game. The Overwatch franchise was unplayable for an entire day, and Overwatch 2 disappeared in China for many months.
It’s better to play against bots or in a LAN party than to have no way to play the game at all.
It would be good to see your skins when you are offline, but to prevent people from hacking the game and having all the cosmetics, Blizzard could implement a verification system. If you go online and they find that your last recorded data showed ‘x’ data, and upon your return online, you have ‘y’ data, they would revert the ‘y’ data to the ‘x’ data on your device. This way, hacking that affects their monetization would not cause them economic damage.
It makes it drop dead simple to cheat and it’s almost impossible to detect the way Blizzard does anti-cheat. It’s actually one of the big reasons Heroes of the Storm failed was because they did it this way and it is a terrible way to do things.
Every client in this setup has to know everything about every other client. It also makes it so it’s easier to force a specific player to disconnect from the match.
The current way Overwatch does it is way better. And while nothing is hack proof, the way it’s currently done is more resistant to hacks and cheats than peer to peer. It’s also more responsive and in general gives lower latency and better net code.
You are literally asking for a degradation in quality on a multiplayer game where the only single player mode is training range. That’s beyond dumb
Imagine if they worked on those and made them available offline.
Heroes of the storm has offline?
I got Mei on there if so I can play it on Steam Deck.