After the Windows 10 1903 update I no longer have the sound option to choose as my “playback device” my Asus sound card headphones. In the Overwatch sound options I have nothing in the playback device dropdown menu except for “default.” As a result, the sound quality during game play is vastly reduced. All of my other apps recognize my sound card perfectly.
Interestingly, I can still instruct Windows through the “App volume and device preferences” that Overwatch should use my sound card headphones for output and input. This makes no difference, however. This playback device still does not show up within the Overwatch sound options.
What’s the deal with this? I have to conclude from some other posts about this that this is a Blizzard issue, and not a problem with the sound card driver, Windows 10, or anything else. It would seem that Blizzard hasn’t made the necessary modifications to accommodate the Windows 1903 update, which at this point is basically being forced upon us. I’ll note that Overwatch recognized my sound card just fine in the earlier versions like 1803 and 1809.
Thank you. Unfortunately, it did not fix my issue of Overwatch not recognizing my sound card as a “playback device” after the 1903 update, which I installed again on October 1, 2019. I’ll note that the update summary on the Microsoft page indicates that they fixed, or tried to fix, audio issues that some gamers were having. Namely, that “Audio in games is quiet or different than expected.” Superficially, this statement might include my unexpected situation (OW seeing only the default device, not my sound card “headphones”), but the summary doesn’t explicitly indicate the precise issue I have. And, as I mentioned, this update didn’t cure the problem. I sympathize with Blizzard in that Microsoft is admitting they made “audio compatibility changes” with 1903 at the behest of some of their audio partners. But the fact is that it’s only Blizzard games that have this sound card recognition problem after v.1903, and I do run other games (Steam, etc).
It’s not only Blizzard games that experienced a change, but this whole situation is already on Blizzard’s radar, as they have responded to other threads concerning this issue. I don’t have any estimates for fixes or anything like that because I don’t work for them.