Overwatch Ought To Be Overjoyed By Its First Test Week
Published: Nov 9, 2015 - Last Updated: Oct 4, 2022
Overwatch, a team-based shooter game created by Blizzard, continues its path to success in the eSports competitive scene. The recently-released closed beta game just had its first week of testing and the results are so far very promising.
Even though the game was – and will be – made available to only a “small group” of testers, more than 7 million people have registered for Overwatch.
A great start for Overwatch
Blizzard, the company that has brought us titles like the Starcraft franchise and World of Warcraft, is on a solid path to make its newest project, Overwatch, the best product so far.
World of Warcraft, the signature game in the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) universe, had 12 million peak subscribers in 2011 and has since then dropped to 5.5 million. It is still an incredible number of players, but compared to the 7 million or more subscribers to the company’s current project that is currently only a closed beta, the future for the new game looks incredibly bright.
It’s important to keep in mind, however, that Overwatch is still a work in progress. The goal of the closed beta and the so-called beta test weekends is to see how the game works and whether it’s positively received by the community.
And judging by the feedback of some pro players, the game is great.
Positive feedback from the eSports community
As said, the most important aspect of giving a closed beta game to testers is feedback.
Does the game run smoothly? How’s the content? How’s the sound? Is the overall experience good? These are the questions that give the game’s creators the necessary information about whether they did a good job and what, if anything, has to be changed and adjusted.
So far the feedback from the testers was great.
“It’s the smoothest engine ever,” Brandon “Seagull” Larned, a former Team Fortress 2 pro player, said. Additionally, he commented, “I can’t dodge shit I should be able to. It’s not precise enough. That’s my only issue. Literally everything else is insanely good.”
Andrew “id_” Trulli, a three-time Quakecon champion in Quake Live CTF calls it “quite smooth.”
With all the feedback for the game, Blizzard is definitely prepared to make sure Overwatch is the go-to team-based shooter for the future. Such positive comments from pro players only after a short time show that the game’s creators did an excellent job.
This bodes well for teams that are already making moves towards the game. The better the feedback, the more confidence the company will have with releasing the game to the broader audience, and there are a lot of people waiting to play — especially since the game was made accessible only to a limited number of players.
Onwards
New information about the future of the game was released at BlizzCon. The release will supposedly happen in spring 2016.
The base game will only be available on PC and it will cost $40, which may seem a bit high, but with all the excitement the game has created through the beta it probably won’t hold players back from getting it.
Since: September 12, 2015
