Overwatch 2 developer Blizzard has caused a bit of a stir with a recent hotfix deploy that, for some players, caused more issues than it fixed. While applying the Shambali collision exploit hotfix, a small number of players got stuck in the process, causing disconnects. In the wake of the issue’s eventual resolution, commercial leader and VP of Overwatch Jon Spector has taken to Twitter to provide extra insights into the studio’s patching process, as well as what went wrong in Season 1.
According to the developer, “various fixes” and “another round of balance changes” are on the way to the competitive shooter – a process which, Spector says, requires “several weeks lead time given QA needs and submission to all platforms where we operate.”
However, in the case of the Shambali collision exploit, a much smaller hotfix was shipped. The hotfixing tool, according to Spector, allows the studio to make “small changes to a few specific parts of the game as soon as we have tested them.” Alongside minor collision updates such as this one, Spector says number adjustments for the Overwatch 2 heroes are also possible with this tool.
So what happened in Season 1, and why did it take full balance parses for simple number tweaks to take place? Well, Spector says that there were bugs in the hotfix system at launch, though these have now been rectified.
Going forward, then, players can expect much more timely balance tweaks, with Spector noting that “quick hero balance changes” are en route at some point later this week in response to early Season 2 performance.
With the promise of balance changes, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for chops and changes to our Overwatch 2 tier list in the coming days.