News
Overwatch Update Makes Changes To Doomfist, Mei, Sombra, And More Tweaks
Everyone is buzzing about the new hero in Overwatch, Brigitte, but the game also rolled out a brand new patch that is impacting a number of heroes and adding more tweaks.
Doomfist, Mei and Sombra were the primary focus of the new patch but the game made other tweaks as well to round out what has been a pretty intense week for the team at Blizzard.
Here is the breakdown via Blizzard:
HERO UPDATES
Doomfist
- Hand Cannon
- Ammo recovery rate increased from 0.8 seconds to 0.65 seconds per bullet
- Developer Comments: This change will help Doomfist more consistently be able to use his weapon as part of his combos.
Mei
- Endothermic Blaster
- Freeze (slow) duration increased from 1 second to 1.5 seconds
- Weapon alternate fire ammo cost reduced from 25 to 20
- Developer Comment: Increasing Mei’s slow duration helps her freeze targets that are particularly elusive such as Genji or Lúcio. Lowering her alternate fire ammo cost allows her to more safely use it without costing her the ability to freeze enemies.
Sombra
- EMP
- No longer blocked by small objects (e.g. sign posts)
- Hack
- No longer gains ultimate charge from health pack healing
- Cast time reduced from 0.8 seconds to 0.65 seconds
- Now disables the following abilities:
- Genji—Cyber-agility
- Hanzo—Wall Climb
- Pharah—Hover Jets
- Lúcio—Healing Boost and Speed Boost (turns off current song entirely), Wall Ride
- Mercy—Angelic Descent
- Machine Pistol
- Machine Pistol spread reduced from 3 to 2.7
- Opportunist
- Enemy health bars are now visible when health drops below 100% (formerly 50%)
- Her ability to detect enemies through walls at 50% or less remains unchanged
- Translocator
- Duration increased from 15 seconds to 20 seconds
- Enemy health bars are now visible when health drops below 100% (formerly 50%)
- Developer Comment: The goal of these changes for Sombra is to remove the necessity for her teammates to take damage and heal themselves with her hacked heath packs to try to get her ultimate charged up quickly. Her ultimate will now come up less often, but there are more abilities that are disabled by Hack so it is more effective when used. Previously, Opportunist would only activate when an enemy’s health bar dipped below 50% but now the passive will reveal all damaged enemies which should help Sombra identify targets in her line of sight to pick off. Overall these changes should make her more effective and less reliant on her ultimate.
MAP UPDATES
Blizzard World
- Some health pack sizes have been reduced
- Some health pack locations have been changed
- Additional health packs have been added
- Developer Comments: Health packs are a valuable resource in Overwatch and positioning around them is key to holding ground on defense or keeping up momentum on offense. We have moved the location of some health packs and included additional ones to improve game play on Blizzard World.
USER INTERFACE UPDATES
Mercy
- Valkyrie
- No longer shows enemies’ health bars unless they have taken damage
- Developer Comment: This helps remove some clutter from Mercy players’ screens when they use her ultimate
BUG FIXES
- General
- Fixed a bug that prevented Capture the Flag statistics from displaying on the Career Profile if the match was played on Ayuttheya in the Arcade
- Maps
- Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented announcement voice lines from triggering on Blizzard World
Console
Microsoft Unveils Xbox Developer Sustainability Toolkit


Xbox has officially unveiled the Xbox Developer Sustainability Toolkit which is aimed to help creators reduce energy consumption and measure carbon emissions during game development processes.
The Xbox Developer Sustainability ToolKit includes resources that include:
- Power Monitor tools
- Certification reports
- Power consumption dashboards
- Best practices
Ubisoft and 343 Industries were named as early users of the Xbox Developer Sustainability ToolKit with 343 Industries able to reduce energy use by 15% without impacting the player experience at all.
Ubisoft and Xbox are co-developing an energy-efficient eco-mode for users.
You can check out the full report right here.
Business
Epic Games Store Hits $820 Million in Player Spending During 2022


Epic Games has officially released financial data related to it’s growing marketplace on PC, showing that $820 million was spent on the Epic Games Store during the 2022 year, and promised support for third-party subscription services and new ‘content hubs’ to help companies promote their titles.
According to the data:
The numbers
- Total users of Epic Games Store PC: 230 million (up 19% year-on-year)
- Epic cross-platform accounts: 732 million
- Daily active users peak: 34.3 million
- Monthly active users: 68 million (up 10%)
- Total spending, incl. Epic’s games: $820 million (down 2%)
- Spending on third-party games: $355 million (up 18%)
- Free games claimed: 700 million
- Number of new PC releases: 626
- Total library of PC games: 1,548 (up 68%)
Epic Games stated on it’s blog that more PC games launched during the 2022 year than in any year prior.
Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto 5, Rocket League, Genshin Impact, and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands were among the most popular titles related to player engagement and player spending, and Epic Games looks to deepen their focus in 2023 as they aim to improve the store launcher’s performance.
Epic Games also aims to add support for subscription services from third-party publishers and live service products by the end of the 2023 year, adding that they are also working on ‘content hubs’ which will be separate from product pages and will enable publishers to “share information with users in a robust editorial format.”
Business
California Judge Dismisses Gamers Lawsuit Filed Against Microsoft


A federal judge in San Francisco has ruled that the group of 10 plaintiffs “[lacked] allegations” in their lawsuit filed last year that claimed Microsoft’s ownerships of Activision Blizzard would harm consumers and competition in the video games market, according to a filing shared by Reuters.
While US District Judge Jacqueline Corley dismissed the case, she also gave the plaintiffs 20 days to refine their lawsuit and resubmit it, and the group’s lawyer, Joseph Saveri, said that there are plans to officially submit an amended lawsuit with “additional factual detail” that will address the judge’s concerns.
It marks a victory for Microsoft, but their battles are far from over as they still face a hearing over the Federal Trade Commission’s legal complaint, which is currently slated to take place in August of this year.
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard originally expected the transaction to be complete by June 30, 2023.
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