Overwatch 2 Devs Knew It Would Get Review Bombed On Steam

thegamer.com:

Overwatch 2 launched on Steam this year, making it the first time that the series has been available to purchase on the platform. However, this also coincided with several controversies surrounding the game, so when it wasn't too surprising to see that it was immediately review-bombed.

In fact, it turns out that the devs knew this would happen too. According to Andy Belford, a former community development manager for Overwatch, the team "begged" management for more resources to cope with the expected avalanche of negativity, but were "flatly denied". He goes further, saying that this order came directly from then-CEO Bobby Kotick, who refused to listen to the team's concerns.

"When we planned OW2’s steam launch, my team warned (months in advance) that we’re going to be review bombed," says Belford. "We begged for more information, more details, and more resources to help us with the anticipated influx, all flatly denied."

He goes on, explaining that dealing with these negative reviews was not supposed to be part of their job. "Moderation of Steam was put on the community team (not a function of community at Blizz), despite my refusal to want to expose members of my team to that level of toxic content/posts. When asked whose decision it was to launch on Steam with no additional help: Bobby."

Overwatch 2 still has overwhelmingly negative reviews on Steam. It has, however, risen from being the worst-reviewed game on the platform... to being the second worst-reviewed game on the platform.

Belford says this was a common occurrence at Blizzard, with the consequences of management's decisions falling on the "lowest paid and most overworked individuals".

At this time, players would have been complaining about the scaled-back