Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – August 17, 2021

A new Overwatch patch is in development and now available for testing! To share your feedback or report any issues, please post in the PTR Feedback or PTR Bug Report forums.

Please note that the below patch notes only include changes currently available for testing on the PTR. While many of these changes may also be available on Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch in a future patch, the PTR is PC-only and only reflects changes coming specifically to that platform.

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed bug where similar text characters in game codes wouldn’t be treated as the same
• Fixed bug where Author name would sometimes not properly load
• Fixed issue where some error text would not display properly
• Fixed issue where Author level wouldn’t always show properly on the Popular tab

Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – August 12, 2021

A new Overwatch patch is in development and now available for testing until August 19! To share your feedback or report any issues, please post in the PTR Feedback or PTR Bug Report forums.

Please note that the below patch notes only include changes currently available for testing on the PTR. While many of these changes may also be available on Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch in a future patch, the PTR is PC-only and only reflects changes coming specifically to that platform.

GENERAL UPDATES

Feature Update: Custom Games Browser

New Custom Game Browser Tabs

• Popular
• Favorites
• Recent
• All Games

New Custom Game Setting

• Mode Name

Developer Comments: Previously, it was difficult for players to keep track of the ever-growing collection of player-created game modes. The Custom Game Browser’s new tabs give these modes a chance to shine. The Popular tab shows off some of the most-played modes as well as modes that have started to trend. Th...

Overwatch Retail Patch Notes – August 12, 2021

A new patch is now live on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. Read below to learn more about the latest changes.

To share your feedback, please post in the General Discussion forum.
For a list of known issues, visit our Bug Report forum.
For troubleshooting assistance, visit our Technical Support forum.

BUG FIXES

Heroes

D.Va

• Fixed a circumstance where D.Va’s Self-Destruct didn’t do damage as expected

Overwatch Retail Patch Notes – August 11, 2021

A new patch is now live on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. Read below to learn more about the latest changes.

To share your feedback, please post in the General Discussion forum.
For a list of known issues, visit our Bug Report forum.
For troubleshooting assistance, visit our Technical Support forum.

GENERAL UPDATES

Feature Update: Social Options Menu: Text Chat Settings

New Options

• Group Text Chat - On / Off
• Team Text Chat - On / Off
• Match Text Chat - On / Off
• General Text Chat - On / Off

Developer Comments: Players will now have the ability to turn off text chat individually for Group, Team, Match and General chat channels effectively muting them separately. These options can be found within Text Chat settings on the Social Options menu.

BUG FIXES

Maps

Junkertown

• Fixed a bug that allowed players to stand on top of a building panel near the initial attacker’s spawn location

Heroes

Ana

• Fixed a bug that caused golden ...

Overwatch Retail Patch Notes – August 5, 2021

A new patch is now live on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. Read below to learn more about the latest changes.

To share your feedback, please post in the General Discussion forum.
For a list of known issues, visit our Bug Report forum.
For troubleshooting assistance, visit our Technical Support forum.

HERO UPDATES

Doomfist

Meteor Strike

• Now speeds up the cooldown rate of his abilities by 100% while in the air

Developer Comments: The accelerated cooldown times will enable more fluidity with setting up Doomfist’s combos when using the Meteor Strike ultimate.

Genji

Shuriken

• Damage increased from 28 to 29

Dragonblade

• Damage reduced from 120 to 110

Developer Comments: The Shuriken damage increase doesn’t sound like a lot but it crosses a threshold or “breakpoint” against some enemy targets, enabling them to be eliminated with one less attack landed. To help balance out this increased power for his primary weapon we’re reduci...

Overwatch Experimental Patch Notes – July 29, 2021

A new patch is now live on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. Read below to learn more about the latest changes.

To share your feedback, please post in the General Discussion forum.
For a list of known issues, visit our Bug Report forum.
For troubleshooting assistance, visit our Technical Support forum.

EXPERIMENTAL HERO UPDATES

We’re using the 2-2-2 Role Queue ruleset so that you can get a feel for how these balance changes might affect the live game.

HERO UPDATES (ONLY IN EXPERIMENTAL)

Doomfist

Meteor Strike

• Now speeds up the cooldown rate of his abilities by 100% while in the air

Developer Comments: The accelerated cooldown times will enable more fluidity with setting up Doomfist’s combos when using the Meteor Strike ultimate.

Genji

Shuriken

• Damage increased from 28 to 29

Dragonblade

• Damage reduced from 120 to 110

Developer Comments: The Shuriken damage increase doesn’t sound like a lot but it crosses a threshold...

Overwatch Retail Patch Notes – July 20, 2021

A new patch is now live on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. Read below to learn more about the latest changes.

To share your feedback, please post in the General Discussion forum.
For a list of known issues, visit our Bug Report forum.
For troubleshooting assistance, visit our Technical Support forum.

SUMMER GAMES 2021

It’s time for the 2021 Summer Games! Get wild with Lúcioball Remix, the craziest version of your favorite ball-based sport. Take on the cutthroat competition of Copa Lúcioball Season 5. Celebrate the summer with legendary skins including Poolside Ashe, Sprinkles Mei, and Mermaid Symmetra. Unlock these and more, along with Summer Games items from previous years!

Learn more about this year’s Summer Games Event on the Overwatch website.

GENERAL UPDATES

General

• Funky Baptiste’s Immortality Field device now resembles a disco ball

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed a bug that resulted in replay lists appearing empty
• Fixed a bu...

Be sure to check out our Cross-Play blog for questions regarding how Cross-Play impacts Top 500 and Leaderboards!

Some key notes:

• PC players will remain on their own, separated leaderboard since they do not Cross-Play with other platforms in Competitive under any circumstance

• Console leaderboards will now contain players from other platforms if you’re opted in to Cross-Play

• If you’re opted out of Cross-Play, only players from your platform who are also opted out of Cross-Play will be present on the leaderboard

• Regional leaderboards still exist for all platforms

Overwatch Retail Patch Notes – July 1, 2021

A new patch is now live on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. Read below to learn more about the latest changes.

To share your feedback, please post in the General Discussion forum.
For a list of known issues, visit our Bug Report forum.
For troubleshooting assistance, visit our Technical Support forum.

HERO UPDATES

General

• Hitscan damage now scales to 30% at maximum falloff range, down from 50% for the following heroes:
  • Ashe
  • Baptiste
  • Bastion
  • McCree
  • Soldier: 76
  • Widowmaker
  • Wrecking Ball

Developer Comments: This change may be difficult to notice immediately as it scales damage over a range slightly more than before, but it will lower the impact of hitscan damage outside of their intended optimal ranges.

Bastion

Configuration: Recon

• Weapon spread reduced from 1.5 to 1.2

Developer Comments: We’re making Bastion’s Configuration: Recon weapon more reliable to help strengthen his run-and-gun gameplay when moving between spots he wan...

Welcome to Season 29 of Competitive Play

Season 29 of Competitive Play is here!

Unlocked at level 25, Competitive Play is designed for those players who want to put their skills to the test, and offers a more serious experience than our Quick Play or Arcade Modes.

GETTING STARTED

Before you can kick off your competitive career, every player will be required to complete five placement matches in a selected role to obtain their seasonal skill rating for that role. Within the standard Role Queue competitive mode, players will earn separate skill ratings (SR) for each role in Competitive Play, for a total of three distinct SRs. This rating will be a number between 1 and 5000, with higher values indicating a greater skill level. Players will also be assigned a tier per role based on their rating—Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master, or Grandmaster – and climbing into the next tier is possible as you improve. Open Queue will utilize the same rating and tier system, but since ther...

6/25 Update

We’ve made another change that should further reduce the possibility of getting into a match in a far away datacenter. Please continue to report these issues so we can identify any further changes we can make to improve datacenter selection.

Overwatch Experimental Patch Notes – June 24, 2021

A new patch is now live on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. Read below to learn more about the latest changes.

To share your feedback, please post in the General Discussion forum.
For a list of known issues, visit our Bug Report forum.
For troubleshooting assistance, visit our Technical Support forum.

EXPERIMENTAL HERO UPDATES

The next experiment begins! This time we’re hoping to get your feedback on some balance changes. We’re using the 2-2-2 Role Queue ruleset so that you can get a feel for how these balance changes might affect the live game.

HERO UPDATES (ONLY IN EXPERIMENTAL)

General

• Hitscan damage now scales to 30% at maximum falloff range, down from 50% for the following heroes:
  • Ashe
  • Baptiste
  • Bastion
  • McCree
  • Soldier: 76
  • Widowmaker
  • Wrecking Ball

Developer Comments: This change may be difficult to notice immediately as it scales damage over a range slightly more than before, but it will lower the impact of hitscan...

Hey everyone!

Today’s Global Battle.net update has caused some confusion in the community about region locking and swapping, so let’s take a moment to provide some clarity about details that might not be immediately clear:

Why can’t I swap regions anymore?

The simple answer is, you are placed into the best match based on a variety of factors including player skill and ping. Getting more technical, it’s because the regions themselves no longer exist (at least not in the way players traditionally understand them), so there is no region to swap to.

But my friends all play in a different region than I do!

You’ll still be able to play with your friends in other regions. In the case that you’re in a party, our systems work to place you in games with the lowest ping and best skill level for you or your party. These changes are aimed at ensuring that queue times are minimized and that the average ping is relatively low.

Outside of gameplay, some have noted that General chat contains players...

Overwatch Retail Patch Notes – June 22, 2021

A new patch is now live on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. Read below to learn more about the latest changes.

To share your feedback, please post in the General Discussion forum.
For a list of known issues, visit our Bug Report forum.
For troubleshooting assistance, visit our Technical Support forum.

ASHE’S DEADLOCK CHALLENGE

Celebrate the release of the new Overwatch novel, “Deadlock Rebels” by Lyndsay Ely, with Ashe’s Deadlock Challenge! Through July 5, earn limited-time rewards, including the new Deadlock Ashe skin, by playing games and watching Overwatch streams on Twitch.

Learn more about Ashe’s Deadlock Challenge on the Overwatch website.

GENERAL UPDATES

New Feature: Cross-Play

Cross-Play is now here, allowing players on different platforms to group up and play Overwatch together! All console players are required to make a Battle.net account and link it to their console account. Everyone who logs into Overwatch by the end...

Overwatch Retail Patch Notes – June 9, 2021

A new patch is now live on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. Read below to learn more about the latest changes.

To share your feedback, please post in the General Discussion forum.
For a list of known issues, visit our Bug Report forum.
For troubleshooting assistance, visit our Technical Support forum.

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed a bug that awarded the wrong Player Icon to players for Season 4 of Competitive 6v6 Lockout Elimination

• Fixed a bug that caused player ranks to not appear properly on the hero select and tab screens

Heroes

Sombra

• Fixed a bug that caused Sombra’s neck to be outstretched during her “Pumpkinette” victory pose

Torbjörn

• Fixed a bug that caused Torbjörn’s fingers to clip through his mallet during his “Taking a Break” victory pose

Overwatch Retail Patch Notes – June 3, 2021

A new patch is now live on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. Read below to learn more about the latest changes.

To share your feedback, please post in the General Discussion forum.
For a list of known issues, visit our Bug Report forum.
For troubleshooting assistance, visit our Technical Support forum.

HERO UPDATES

Baptiste

Exo-Boots

• Charge time increased from 0.7 to 1 second

Developer Comments: Though it felt better to use, the previous reduction to the Exo Boots charge time resulted in Baptiste becoming much more evasive against some heroes. Since he already has strong defensive ability options in Regenerative Burst and Immortality Field, we’re reverting how quickly he can charge the Exo Boots jump.

Echo

Duplicate

• Ultimate cost increased by 15%

Developer Comments: The Duplicate ultimate has proven to be more impactful than expected and was coming up quickly due to Echo’s high damage output.

McCree

Peacekeeper

• Reload time i...

Overwatch Experimental Patch Notes – May 27, 2021

A new patch is now live on Windows PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. Read below to learn more about the latest changes.

To share your feedback, please post in the General Discussion forum.
For a list of known issues, visit our Bug Report forum.
For troubleshooting assistance, visit our Technical Support forum.

EXPERIMENTAL HERO UPDATES

The next experiment begins! This time we’re hoping to get your feedback on some balance changes. We’re using the 2-2-2 Role Queue ruleset so that you can get a feel for how these balance changes might affect the live game.

HERO UPDATES (ONLY IN EXPERIMENTAL)

Baptiste

Exo-Boots

• Charge time increased from 0.7 to 1 second

Developer Comments: Though it felt better to use, the previous reduction to the Exo Boots charge time resulted in Baptiste becoming much more evasive against some heroes. Since he already has strong defensive ability options in Regenerative Burst and Immortality Field, we’re r...

Overwatch Retail Patch Notes – May 24, 2021

A new patch is now live on PC. Read below to learn more about the latest changes.

To share your feedback, please post in the General Discussion forum.
For a list of known issues, visit our Bug Report forum.
For troubleshooting assistance, visit our Technical Support forum.

BUG FIXES

General

• [PC Only] Fixed a crash that occurred when default Sound settings were selected

Hey everyone, have a slightly different topic to post about today – Let’s talk hack-related bans.

Over the course of Overwatch’s five-year history, we’ve been monitoring and taking action against software used to cheat the game. A number of teams are dedicated to not only actioning accounts found guilty of hacking, but also improving our systems to help with automatic detection. Overwatch developers, security engineers, cross-functional risk experts, and multiple customer service support teams work in tandem to frequently and meaningfully take action against bad actors.

When we talk about anti-cheat, we are always cognizant of some risks involved:

• It’s in our players’ best interest that we don’t serve to amplify this software
• It’s in our players’ and developers’ best interest to not communicate when fixes are implemented – We’d rather catch those using them off-guard to make sure their accounts are properly actioned
• It’s in our developers’ best interest to not provide details surround...

Overwatch Retail Patch Notes – May 18, 2021 (2)

A new patch is now live on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. Read below to learn more about the latest changes.
To share your feedback, please post in the General Discussion forum.
For a list of known issues, visit our Bug Report forum.
For troubleshooting assistance, visit our Technical Support forum.

BUG FIXES

General

• [PC Only] Fixed an issue where rank icons were not appearing properly in some circumstances. We will release a patch to other platforms at a later date to address this issue

Heroes

Moira

• Fixed an issue with Venus that caused extra fingers to appear in first-person view