FINAL UPDATE 11-27-24: After further testing, I have to apologize. Please disregard this thread. I have definitely been experiencing system instability and NOT an in game audio problem, as this has happened now with multiple non-battle net games as well. It appears to have been resolved with a hardware update (both power supply and RAM unfortunately).
There might still be a battle net audio issue out there from what other threads have shown, but it definitely was hardware failure in my situation.
Devs please respond. Will share more info as needed. Game is unplayable with this issue, would consider it a game breaking bug.
With the latest patch, I’m having issues with the audio in Overwatch 2 affecting my entire system sounds. Looking in to this, it seems like a known issue that comes and goes with releases and has never been addressed nor responded to:
(I had more examples from the OW2 forum, but Blizzard’s browser forum post app will only let me post two links as a “new user” even though I’ve clocked like 18 hours or so in game on this account last I checked, go figure)
These posts just go unresponded to and get locked. Google can show even more people having the issue.
What happens: I don’t know what triggers it, but something in Overwatch 2 causes a complete system sound audio distortion and desync after it starts in the Overwatch 2 software. Meaning that something in the application triggers the start of the popping, and the popping continues across all system sounds until the application is closed. This ONLY occurs with Overwatch 2 and is eliminated immediately when the software is closed, immediately returning all system sound to normal. Restarting the software only temporarily solves the issue until it starts again with the software trigger. I’ve only been able to play one match in game until it starts again after restarting. Other people have reported this behavior, but this only recently started for me with the latest patch.
- I have made no system changes recently; stable Windows PC; specs more than capable of running the game at max settings
- This only occurs specifically with Overwatch 2 and no other software, and it affects all system sounds when it is happening
- I have tried adjusting all in game audio settings and multiple Windows system sound and device settings to no avail; again the problem isn’t heard on any other software, my system is stable
- The sounds are very clearly digital distortion / clocking issues with the audio drivers etc. that are triggered by and immediately stopped when the application is closed; all sound immediately returns to normal
Devs please respond. Will share more info as needed. Game is unplayable with this issue, would consider it a game breaking bug.
UPDATE: This is happening on Call of Duty Warzone/ Call of Duty HQ as well. Do most Battle Net games share the same audio engine? It is only happening on Battle Net games. It also seems to start happening in the main menu UI of these games.