Just curious about this as I recently found out, thanks to RodimusPrime, that OW2 will be replacing OW1 and not running concurrently with it. Since we paid $20 for Overwatch, can Blizzard force the Overwatch 2 update on us and basically replace the original game we paid for?
I’m sure in the contractual agreements between Devs and player there’s probably something that specifies Blizz can do anything they want with OW.
What do you all think?
It seems pretty “unethical”. They should keep overwatch 1/2 as separate clients just like they had during the beta phase.
I understand why Jeff Kaplan wanted to do it this way. Because he thought that it would actually be nicer for the players if they didn’t have to pay for the next one and it would be a free update. But the problem is they are different games. They should remain separate.
Yes.
Essentially the PvP side will work as a DLC/expansion/upgrade. But the PvP side isn’t “OW2” as such. OW2 is the PvE side, which will be a later addition. Possibly for a fee.
Legally there is nothing stopping them turning everything off and removing everyone’s access tomorrow.
I kinda feel like people are switching things around. Blizzard could kill off OW1 at any time, nothing is legally stopping them to do this. But instead of leaving the OW1 playerbase with a dead game they give everyone, who bought OW1, a free update to the OW2 pvp part. Sure not everybody likes the direction OW2 is taking, but it still beats just having a dead game.
The information that OW2 will replace OW1 is an old one, and they are doing it simply because splitting the already small player base would throw queue times into the dumpster, and then they would need to split the development team which would be a headache with decent cost on top of it.
It’s not WoW Classic where you can slap 25$ for a mount to financially justify the project, lol
I’d rather have a dead game and get Overwatch 2 for free as a separate game for owners of the original. Don’t force the update on us. Some of us would still enjoy doing PUGS/scrims in Overwatch 1.
I like to look at it as they are completely different flavours of the same game. You don’t need to get rid of chocolate to have vanilla ice cream as an option.
what do you think starcraft 2 did? the game changed majorly between wings of liberty to legacy of the void.
and dota 2 have changed to an insane degree compared to what it was originally.
they have no obligation to keep the game the same if it’s a live service game.
that’s why i call live service games anti-competitive, if the rules are subject to change on a whim then how competitive can it be?
likewise if there are characters that are meta which is always the case in multi character type games, how are you supposed to be competitive if you’re playing an inferior character? it’s also kinda anti-competitive.
but with that said, both these things add variety and can shake things up which is fun for casual players who are not that competitive so it makes perfect sense to appeal to the casual market because the casual market is far greater than the competitive one is by a mile.
If you split, you will end up with two dead games, and no one will be happy.
Sacking one game for better future of the other one is actually the ration thing to do.
Totally agree.
Might be interesting if there are some devs in the fan base that want to take advantage of the 6v6 hole and create something. Could be some money in it.
Seems like a mastermind plan to run a company into bankruptcy, I like it!
Queue times will be no issue.
They can just switch the role queue to a single button, leaving the matchmaking process to assign people to a role as they go into a match.
Keeping OW1 going as a single game is the best way, all other games do it this way.
Its real harsh on the consumer to pay for one to get another game that they may not like.
The amount of people who want OW to stay OW is niche, and it’s not worth of the hassle.
Games are being changed all the time, and there is always small group of people who doesn’t like the change. When I was playing CSGO, people hated even the smallest changes, and now they don’t want to go back 
Agreed. Shouldn’t be different imo.
CSGO hasn’t been changed since it was released, it wasn’t merged with anything.
Valve purposely released games in their own entity.
CS 1.6 didn’t become Source etc.
OW should be OW
OW2 should be OW2
Team Fortress and Team Fortress 2 are two separate games also.
You clearly don’t know what you are talking about.
CSGO has been modified in many ways, from map reworks, sound reworks, to graphic, and physics changes. Modern CSGO looks like a game on a different engine compared to the first release of it 
Sure, but CSGO didn’t follow this trend, and was modified in many ways to fit into the modern standard of gaming.
OW should be updated to OW2, and niche whiners should be kicked to the curb
Agree. Maybe not so aggressively… But agree if OW2 isn’t for you, then go away and play something else.
i agree with you because OW2 is kind of a big departure to what OW1 is so it would be kind of a shame to just remove the game completely, but hey that’s how live service games operate nowadays.
you can’t really compare old competitive games to new competitive games.
But it is still fundamentally the same game as when it was first released.
OW has had many reworks, balances, and fixes, yet it is still OW.
Every game has gone through that process of the.
Nice one for being threatening on the forum that all niché whiners should be kicked to the curb. That is pretty uncalled for.
CS being the one I compared OW to is still very relevant in today as it was when OW was released. In fact it is more relevant in that it is beating OW at League level in regards to popularity.
yeah but the difference is that CS have a formula that works, overwatch doesn’t.
they are founded on two different principles of balance.