‘Overwatch 2’: Long queue times are because no one wants to play support roles, says Blizzard

The reason why there are long queues to play Overwatch 2 is because users are less keen to play support roles, developer Blizzard Entertainment has confirmed.

• READ MORE: What the hell has happened at Activision and why should you care?

In a development update published on Overwatch‘s official website, executive producer Jared Neuss said that queue times are “a very real, very consistent focus area for the team” and Blizzard is promising to make support roles more fun to address the issue.

Typically, Overwatch 2 fans are wanting to play tanks – characters that draw attackers away from other players – and Damage Per Second (DPS) players, whose main objectives are to cause damage in the online matches.

While Neuss admitted that there isn’t a “silver bullet” that will fix everything right away, there are “a LOT of ideas” being considered for upcoming seasons.

“Many of these ideas,” Neuss added of Blizzard’s new developments, “are focused on the support role and how we can make it more fun and more rewarding to play.

“We’re discussing targeted support hero reworks, game system updates, and even some role-wide changes to improve support quality of life.”

The specifics of Overwatch 2‘s plans to boost the support roles haven’t been revealed but Neuss said players will get updates on the changes as they’re decided on.

“In the short term, we’ve made queue-time estimates more accurate in the UI (support queues are less than one minute, in most cases) and we’re going to experiment with our Battle Pass XP rewards for those who queue as support/all roles,” he added.

Meanwhile, Blizzard has announced that it will be suspending most of its game services in China.

The game developer shared the news in an official statement on Activision’s website, confirming that the suspension was due to the expiration of the current licensing agreements with NetEase – the Chinese internet technology company that provided the online service for the games – on January 23.

The end of the deal will see online services for a number of Blizzard’s most popular games come to an end including World Of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Warcraft 3: Reforged, Overwatch, the StarCraft series, Diablo 3, and Heroes Of The Storm.

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