What you need to know
- Blizzard has announced its plan to take Overwatch 2’s servers offline several times for important server maintenance and the implementation of technical fixes.
- Specifically, the game will be unavailable to play for approximately one hour at 3 p.m. PT / 6 p.m. ET, and the servers will go offline again for three hours at 6 p.m. PT / 9 p.m. ET.
- Overwatch 2’s launch has been extremely rocky, with players experiencing frequent login and server connection issues.
- Blizzard has stated that many of the reported issues are due to DDoS attacks on Overwatch 2’s servers, which the developer has been combatting since the game’s October 4 launch day.
Overwatch 2 has finally arrived, but the game’s launch hasn’t been as smooth as developer Blizzard Entertainment was hoping it would be. Players have struggled to log into the game since its October 4 launch day despite waiting to play through hour-long queues. On top of this, many have been disconnected from the servers mid-game due to connection errors, kicking them back to the game’s splash screen and putting them right back where they started.
In order to perform server maintenance and implement some important fixes that should improve the situation, Blizzard has announced that it’s planning to take Overwatch 2 offline several times on October 6. Specifically, the game will be unavailable to play for approximately one hour at 3 p.m. PT / 6 p.m. ET, and the servers will go offline again for about three hours at around 6 p.m. PT / 9 p.m. ET.
Blizzard has stated that one of the major causes of Overwatch 2’s rocky launch has been a mass DDoS attack, and according to a Tweet from Overwatch 2 Game Director Aaron Keller, an additional DDoS attack has been hammering the game’s servers since late on launch day. A hotfix was implemented on October 5 that improved login and connection stability issues for many players, but unfortunately, thousands of players are still experiencing issues.
With any luck, the fixes the developers are deploying will fix the majority of problems that Overwatch fans are having. In the meantime, refer to our roundup of Overwatch 2 known bugs and launch issues for information on what to watch out for when trying to play Blizzard’s new iteration of its award-winning hero shooter.
Overwatch 2 is available now on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, PS4, PC, and Nintendo Switch. It’s arguably one of the best Xbox shooters available, and since it’s free-to-play, it doesn’t cost anything to check it out. Alternatively, players can purchase the Overwatch 2: Watchpoint Pack that provides access to Season 1’s Premium Battle Pass, 2,000 Overwatch Coins, and a bundle of unique Legendary skins.
