Overwatch 2 devs confirm plans for quicker balance updates with Season 1 issues fixed

An Overwatch 2 developer publicly shared that Season 2 and beyond will have faster updates thanks to their hotfix function, which was previously broken, now working as intended.

Waiting on balance updates for Overwatch 2 throughout Season 1 often frustrated many players, since the pacing of which devs released balance updates was deemed far too slow by the community. But it turns out the slower updates weren’t intentional, but rather a result of a backend issue that resulted in hotfixes breaking the game.

Overwatch Commercial Leader Jon Spector laid it out for the community in his latest Twitter post:

“Due to some bugs with the hotfix system at launch, we were not able to use those tools in Season 1. We therefore took longer to make balance changes and address a few small bugs than we wanted. So we’re excited to have this functionality working again!”

[5/5] Due to some bugs with the hotfix system at launch, we were not able to use those tools in Season 1. We therefore took longer to make balance changes and address a few small bugs than we wanted. So we're excited to have this functionality working again!

— Jon Spector (@Spex_J) December 13, 2022

Throughout Overwatch Season 1, they only implemented changes as part of big patch cycles. In other words, hotfixes weren’t used whatsoever — thereby resulting in literal weeks in between during which heroes like Genji were deemed overwhelmingly powerful.

Of course, these overlooks in balance were addressed later down the line, but Overwatch 2 is a team game that angles itself for the competitive market. And with that title comes an expectation of proper game balance and frequent updates.

But now that the hotfix system has been fixed, expect Overwatch 2 Season 2 and beyond to have more consistent balance, since the developers now have the capability to change game-breaking heroes in a timely manner.