Overwatch 2 Launch Problems Continue as Some Players Can’t Access Majority of Cast and Two Characters Are Pulled Due to Bugs

The Overwatch 2 launch continues to be a minor disaster, as many players have reported losing access to multiple heroes they had already unlocked. This latest issue comes after a patch that pulled Bastion and Torbjörn from online play due to significant bugs with their kits. A newly introduced exploit made it so that Bastion could spam his Ultimate ability, filling the screen with artillery shells while Torbjörn could activate his Overload skill multiple times.

At around 6 p.m. EST, a patch rolled out that removed Torbjörn from competitive play and Bastion entirely until these problems are resolved. However, the “fix” seems to have exacerbated an existing glitch where certain players lose the ability to select multiple heroes. Blizzard acknowledged that the problem was caused by “an issue with our servers that tracks player progression,” and rolled out another fix at around midnight EST after an hour of downtime, but it seems to have only fixed things for some players.

Overwatch 2’s launch week has been incredibly rocky. On its first day, it was on the receiving end of multiple DDoS attacks, contributing to login issues and several hour-long queue times. At the same time, many realized that the new mandatory phone verification system, where users had to sync a number to their game account, excluded many types of plans, making it impossible for some to access the game at all. While Blizzard backtracked on this policy for most existing players, it still appears to apply to newcomers or those who haven’t played in a while.

Then there were reports of players accidentally purchasing items (with currency potentially acquired with real money) because of a bug with the in-game chat. Numerous smaller issues have also been introduced with the launch, such as oversights with Mei’s abilities, UI errors and other visual glitches. And beyond these presumably temporary problems, there are ongoing concerns that gameplay changes introduced in the sequel may fundamentally undermine what made the original work.