The State of Console-Overwatch

But… that’s not fair, and you know that. Why did they release this game on console if it was not to be played? I can’t afford a high-end gaming computer because I’m in college and my school tends to be a priority when it comes to spending. I was given my console by a friend who had intentions of giving it to someone else. I was lucky to have this console, and until it dies, I will continue to play Overwatch on it.

Please. This kind of feedback does not contribute to the discussion… Some of us didn’t have this choice, and for someone like me it’s all we have to enjoy gaming at all.

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They made a console OW for the same reason EA made a ps3 Battlefield 3/4 with 24 people, for money.
They don’t care about console players they just want us to buy.

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How long will it be before PC players come on here screaming the following:

.JuSt SwItCh tO pC tHeN

.cOnSoLe pEaSaNts, jOiN tHe ““mAsTeR rAcE””

.jUsT dOn’T pLaY tHe gAmE tHeN

.sToP pOstInG aBoUt cOnSoLe pRoBlEmS, iT’s a tRaSh pLaTfOrM aNyWaYs

P.S: This isn’t directed at all PC players, just the one I experienced and those who act all big and hard just because they play on a different platform.

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You don’t really need 1K to play OW on PC…

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Ok. That aside though, that really isn’t the point of this thread at all. It’s to point out issues that exist on console, not to say that we can/should switch to PC…

Really would rather not see PCMR comments derail an otherwise well-made thread.

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But I never said anything about switching, just correcting some myths.

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You don’t have this?? What the rizzle
That’s. really bad. Jeez.
Blizz what the frizzle

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Yes I know sorry. That wasn’t directed only at you. I meant in general.

PC gaming doesn’t even cost 400$+ to get into…

Well there’s nothing they can do about 1, 5, and 6, and 8 wouldn’t bring in enough revenue to last, because at the end of the day they are a company that needs revenue to keep going.

hewwo, ps4 pleb here
uwu im gonna read and take notes as I do so if thats chill (this is from PS4 perspective btw idk if its exactly the same for XBOX or whatever)

1 - Console PTR - the reason we don’t have a console PTR is probably because companies need to pay to put through updates and patches into Playstation. blah blah multimillion dollar company blah theyre being cheap, but it’s still a reasonable reason.
Not to mention the PTR is a joke anyway. It’s a pit stop for updates, everything that goes to PTR goes live. It doesn’t matter if we get to test it or not. (example, every friggin Mercy change ever. Straight to live.) If we had one for console it would be useless anway.

2 - The game does play a bit differently on console, one example would be the Pharah changes. It rewarded good Pharah players is all I will say on the matter lmao. The thing is console is literally… harder to play. While we have an advantage with movement thanks to the controller, the aiming is atrocious in comparison to a mouse (hence aim assist) therefore the balancing will naturally be off when comparing console to PC. This is also why Mouse and Keyboard is a cheat, a mechanical advantage for those absolute a-holes who use them with console (don’t argue with me, its a precision advantage along with quick flick advantage resulting in movements that are physically impossible to do with such precision on a controller).
Separating balancing for console and PC while a good option would demand much more effort on Blizzard’s behalf, and do you really see that happening anytime soon lmao

3 - When the report system was implemented into console I was overjoyed. Naturally, as a girl, I get harassed a whole lot, and naturally, as a Symmetra main, I get harassed even more. I will report someone without a second thought. However claiming that the report system doesn’t work I think is a bit false. Almost every time I log into my Overwatch I am greeted with the pop-up that my reports have led to them taking action against a player. The only problem I have with this is the fact that you don’t know if that action was a suspension, a ban, what have you. I’ve had tons of bad games where I’ll be like “just report (x) for throwing/abusive chat” and the response is “reports don’t even work anyway, why bother” and that’s probably a big chunk of the reason people assume reports don’t work.
The report system in general has a very inherent flaw, and that’s the fact that it’s borderline entirely automated. This is why people on PC who one-trick a character are punished for it.
I’m a borderline Symmetra one trick (you can’t tell from my hours but shhh), I have the mentality of one, and I don’t give a crap about what map we’re on or what the team wants, I will always lock in Symmetra. (but if its not working I switch. I digress). I have never been punished for that, I’ve never been told “you’re being reported” or something just for picking Symmetra, however I know tons of stories about people on PC getting suspended just for playing her when they don’t even main her. This is a problem with the ban system, as it gives players a full pass to get people banned for things that are completely unreasonable, things that Blizzard themselves have stated are not bannable, yet since the reports are not dealt with by actual humans, chaos ensues. Like I’d even be willing to look at reports myself (#joblesslyfe) for free just to help reports be taken care of without the automated system.

5 - This is such a prevalent problem. I have multiple overwatch accounts, I have my main account (attached to this forum account) which is silver border, but I also have a Moira/filling main account, and a DPS one trick account (and I also have an account purely for the username). Since you’re chucked into games with low levels when you yourself are a low level (atleast for the beginning) you usually expect to be chucked in the mid-range of skill or something like that however on console there’s a 50/50 chance of either team having one or more diamond+ smurfs who have just made a new account for no reason other than to trash on lower players. This is a much more prevalent problem on console due to fact that we can create endless accounts without having to pay for it (if you say ‘smurfing isnt that bad’ ur probs a pc player :confused: ) This problem isn’t helped by the automated ban system, and is not really easily provable, to my knowledge, without probably actually checking accounts linked to that players IP address so I really don’t think it’ll ever be fixed because again, blizz, lazy.

6 - I report M+KB users, plain and simple. I’m in mid plat so I play with anyone from gold to masters (feelsbad for them who get stuck in my games lol) so I’ve seen my fair share of keyboard and mouse. Blizzard states it is an unfair advantage, which is 100% true (as stated in my previous m+kb rant above lmao). Plain and simple people reported for it should be immediately first of all, checked by a real life human for actual use of M+KB (which is ridiculously easy to spot btw, you’re not friggin fooling anyone) and then banned immediately. It is using a third party system (e.g xim) to gain a mechanical advantage over the other players in the game.
I’ve give one of my personal examples from both viewpoints. Had a game with a Mouse and Keyboard Widowmaker on our team (they literally said it when we all joined VC), proved it within about 5 seconds after the game began (it also was clear in the POTG he got), and because it was so obvious he was M+KB and wrecking, both our healers pocketed him while our tanks pushed the payload. Needless to say, we won.
Another game I had, we were versing a M+KB Tracer. This is, quite possibly, the worst experience of my life. I can outplay a M+KB Widow with Sombra pretty easily. Even with Brigitte, on console it is borderline impossible for you to beat a M+KB Tracer (in plat below, I’ll state incase someone wants to fight) unless they’re absolutely brain dead. You cannot turn your view 180 in less than 0.5 seconds if you’re using a controller, and you walk like a nonce with a keyboard. you’re not fooling anyone. Luck is all you have. I mean Tracer herself is an unbalanced mess but anyway. M+KB makes it impossible.
It should be 100% bannable, is that I’m saying. lol.

7 - There’s literally zero excuse for us not being given a FOV slider. Like every goshdarn game I play has one. All of these QOL are inexcusable for being on PC and not console.

However, text chat… I feel like while sure, it would be cool for those people who don’t talk to be given a way to communicate. But no one is a speed demon using the automatic keyboard interface of a console. Maybe you’ve got one of those attachable keyboards for the controller but not everyone has those. The amount of time it would take away from the game. Imagine your Reinhardt is standing in a corner for 30 seconds and you find out later its because he was typing (what if you’re typing and you get kicked for afk? lol). Just be in the voice chat. You don’t have to talk, you just have to listen. If VC is full of toxic a-holes then just leave. And text chat wouldn’t help you in that situation anyway so there’s no point having it.

also I’m very angry I can’t have my game in Korean. I once spent like an hour searching trying to find how to make it that way, eventually I tweeted to Blizz CS and there response was basically ¯\(ツ)/¯ go screw yourself.


in summary I think I’ve just accepted that they’re not going to be fixing console anytime soon. I have the same transgressions with the game as Ragtagg does (DEAR BLIZZARD - OVERWATCH SUCKS!) and it’s only intensified with the serious lack of care for console overwatch in comparison to Pc overwatch.

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This is honestly a really nice post. My biggest complaint with playing on Ps4, which I’ve done since beta, are the people with keyboard mouse adapters. i feel like every time i make a good SR push (I’ve been low diamond for like 6 seasons, but almost pushed into master twice, career high is 3400 something) i run into the people using hitscans with a mouse and get destroyed, usually around 3250-3300. I can tell the difference in game play too. Micro movements of the crosshair, perfect Left right strafing without the tiniest bit of forward back that everyone gets with a joystick, ridiculous flicks. Console Overwatch could honestly work out a lot of its own issues if it was made to be just that, CONSOLE Overwatch.

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Honestly, most of the problems that people see as console-specific balance issues are really the same on PC

For example, people complain about Pharmercy being too powerful on console, but I really don’t notice the difference

the PTR is being used for bugs and optimization problems. because on PC you have all kind of graphic cards and hardware. while console is pretty easy to figure out how to make the patch so it runs well on console. you have the same hardware.

they don’t care about our balance ideas or feedback… majority of the balance changes just get on the live servers anyway.

2 - Ah, okay. Those seem to be the 2 characters I see the least.

3 - I will report people for leaving right before a game leaves, and somebody else joins. Because it’s not fair to that person to wait to play a game, only to join right away to see ‘defeat’. (It also takes forever to type it all out.)

7 - A - Obviously Xbox is master race :wink:

8 - Having a smaller thing during off-season would be a good idea.

  1. Console PTR doesn’t exist because every patch has to go through with the console’s side of things. So blame PS4/Xbone, not Blizzard for that.

  2. This is a problem I agree. But it can all go away with keyboard/mouse usage over controller usage. I wonder if it’s the console bottlenecking that’s stopping them? Or just plain ol’ “we’re still new to consoles” incompetency.

  3. Think of reports as a “chances used up” type of system. Since console population is lower than PC population, that means their chances have a longer shelf-life.

  4. Blizzard tickets in general. However, suspensions do not get appealed. Oppsie-doopsie bans lifted? Sure. Suspensions? Nah.

  5. Smurfs are a fact of life. Worse on PC than console tbh since at least consoles have the same fps bottleneck to help even out reaction times (whereas smurfs on PC tend to have 120fps and other above-average junk).

  6. They need to just endorse keyboard/mouse usage. It would solve so many of their problems when it comes to controlling things on console. However, I think this may be another one of those “console is the issue - not Blizzard” scenario.

  7. Consoles a different beast. Blizzard is not accustomed to console BS. QoL improvements can all come from just finally supporting keyboard/mouse setups (and hell, they can get money by just selling OW brand pads/mouse devices).

  8. Game was made for PC… And more happens at 100+fps and with official keyboard/mouse usage. Console will always be a slower paced game compared to PC - and OW is already “eh” to watch to begin with.

  9. Since Blizzard knows they can’t do what they need to asap on consoles, they probably don’t want to make any promises up front. So, again, good ol’ console bottlenecking strikes again. It’s more than just the hardware, it’s the owners of the hardware and their own set of hoops/policies to “ensure quality” of patches. Blizzard also takes some blame too, because they were not prepared to deal with console differences but went ahead with multi-platforming anyway (differences like: balancing differently or the rigidity of patching).

EX of patch rigidity:
“Ooops, the patch has a bug in it because PC =/= PS4 =/= Xbone. Can we patch it?”
"Is it game breaking?"
“Well, it does this unfair thing for one hero so-”
"Oh? Only 1 Hero? Doesn’t crash the game? So it’s not gamebreaking. Nah. Wait for the next big patch. :^)"
“But-”
"Wait for the next big patch. :^)"
“We really want to nip it in the-”
"Wait :^) For :^) The :^) Next :^) Big :^) Patch :^)"

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even paladins of all games has a console pro series, for both ps4 and xbox, (i beleive switch to be added in on that) as well as better support for QOL.

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I’m not sure if you play on XB, but on PS4, if you go to the settings and change the language, it changes the in-game language as well.

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I do indeed play on PS4. I also did try changing the system language as well. If I changed the system language to German, Italian, Korean, Polish, Russian, or either type of Chinese, then Overwatch would still play in English.

If those said languages did work innately without any issues, I wouldn’t have mentioned it to begin with. If you still don’t believe me, feel free to give it a try yourself ;o

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There isn’t even that for PC players, which are “more valuable”, atleast for Blizzard, imagine for Console Players.