The Chinese player base has strongly supported review bombing Blizzard’s highly anticipated multiplayer shooter, Overwatch 2, which has earned the title of the “worst-rated game ever” on Steam following it’s recent release.
Users assert that the Chinese market is responsible for allegedly contributing ⅔ of the overall negative reviews on Steam.
80% of the negative overwatch reviews on steam are from China, from the players whose entire accounts got rugpulled when Blizzard left China. (Source)
Overwatch 2 currently has 100k reviews on Steam since launching 3 days ago, of which 91% are negative. However, nearly 2/3 of those reviews (63k) are written in S.Chinese, with 97% of them being negative. (Source)
Overwatch 2 had garnered quite a negative rep during it’s initial release. However, the Steam release has taken things to new low. A big chunk of the game’s downfall was allegedly caused by Chinese review bombs.
The reason behind the backlash from gamers in China is expected to be caused by Blizzard’s partnership suspension with NetEase.
Honestly forgot about the NetEase Blizzard break up until now, but makes sense for the lingering resentment from the China server to finally manifest itself as part of the review bombing here. (Source)
Many players and fans have come up with various speculations and theories behind the Chinese discourse of Overwatch 2 (1,2,3,4,5)
What caused the Chinese review bombing on Overwatch 2?
Back in January, Blizzard announced that they would be severing all ties with China’s second-largest video gaming company.
NetEase was responsible for distributing Blizzard’s game in the Chinese market. The abrupt severance has caused all Blizzard products to be unavailable in the country.
This and the connectivity issues on the Chinese server are believed to be the causes behind the Chinese Backlash on Overwatch 2.
However, blaming Overwatch 2’s downfall on Chinese reviews won’t be fair. Users also pointed out another interesting fact.
Negative Chinese reviews may be the majority, but the rest of the negative reviews on Steam came from other countries.
I mean that’s still how many reviews that aren’t from China? 40k-ish??? most of which are ALSO extremely negative… so that’s not saying much (Source)
Suggesting the Chinese discourse isn’t the only reason for the game’s astronomical downfall.
The game is still receiving highly negative reviews. Blizzard hasn’t made any official statements regarding the issue.
We’ll keep track of the situation and post an update if and when there are any further developments on the matter.
Feature image source: Official Blizzard Entertainment Website
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