When Overwatch was first announced for the Nintendo Switch, skepticism was high that the port would be successful due to several decisions made by Blizzard. Prior to the release of the game, Blizzard became the focus of intense scrutiny online and in the media for its controversial banning of a competitive player, and a combination of factors appear to have hurt the launch of Overwatch on the Switch, which otherwise should have been a simple and straightforward process.
In early September of this year, Blizzard announced that Overwatch would be coming to the Switch on October 15. The initial reaction was mixed after more information was revealed. Of positive note was the sheer scale of the project, to bring competitive action to what is essentially a beefed-up tablet is impressive. However, there were also concerns that at first were not significant barriers to the potential success of the project.
For starters, there would be no cross-play enabled between the Nintendo Switch and any other platform, and as the game is entirely an online, co-op FPS experience, this is problematic for the long-term health of the game. There are many games for the Nintendo Switch that are fantastic, but without an online base of players, wait times are long and work to push players to other platforms.
Another issue that certainly kept some players away was that Blizzard would not allow progress to carry over from other accounts. Overwatch first released in May of 2016, and since then players have sunk years of time and money into attaining rare cosmetics from events, and being asked start over despite paying full price for the game would have been enough reason to keep some players away.
Finally, the early reviews revealed that the game did not function as well as had been hoped. The game is playable, but only the most casual of consumers would choose a sub-par experience over any of the other platforms they already have access to in Sony, Microsoft, and their PCs. Shortly after, Overwatch 2 was been announced and will carry over all account progress from the original game, further giving players a reason to stick with that over a Nintendo Switch port.
All of that could have been overlooked with the right mix of public relations and exposure, were it not for the torrent of negative publicity that came in early October. When Blizzard issued an incredibly harsh ban on Ng Wai Chung, known in the Hearthstone esports community as Blitzchung, for making a pro-Hong Kong statement during the stream of a Grandmasters Tour event, everyone noticed.
Condemnation from players, media, and US lawmakers circulated non-stop up to and through BlizzCon 2019. There, Blizzard president J. Allen Brack made a heart-felt apology for the actions of the company, which was vague, did not address Blitzchung, nor did he address or lift the ban, leaving many to wonder what exactly the apology was for if no action would be taken.
The struggles of Overwatch for the Switch may have begun with simple issues that many could overlook in the name of playing on a portable system, but Blizzard’s behavior may have sunk the game completely from having any long-term success.