'Overwatch' News: Player Reporting Coming to Console Players
"Overwatch" console players will finally be able to report cheating and abusive behavior. The much-requested feature will arrive via the game's next patch.
Game director Jeff Kaplan posted on the official "Overwatch" forum that "reporting on console will be available when patch 1.14 goes live." The patch will also be the one that will bring the Death Match and Team Death Match game modes and is currently being tested in the game's public test region.
Blizzard Entertainment has yet to announce an official release date for when the patch will arrive.
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PC users have been able to report players for being toxic, cheating or generally poor performance like AFK and feeding. However, console players have yet to utilize such a necessary feature.
For console players of "Overwatch," reporting often takes some effort using PlayStation Network and Xbox Live's own tools. This dissuades players from reporting at all and given that it's not as useful or accurate in pinpointing what a player has done wrong, bad behavior often goes unpunished.
With the arrival of player reporting to the consoles, Blizzard can now turn to itself in improving said feature. Kaplan even made it clear that this is only just the beginning.
"It's important to note the reporting system and punishments are very much an ongoing development for us," the director wrote. "Improvements will continue over time."
One such improvement involves Blizzard sending emails to players who have been reported for bad behavior to let them know that they are looking into it. While certainly not groundbreaking, it is still good to know for players that justice is being done.
One such letter was posted on Reddit by a player. The post was later confirmed to be real by the game's lead software engineer Bill Warnecke.
Blizzard is set to bring new content and events for most of its titles to Gamescom 2017, which is scheduled for Aug. 23 to 28. This includes a new map and an animated short for "Overwatch."
