I'm not even really sure what overhyping means when I really think about it. Is it that it has marketing? It has more marketing than most games, but they're trying to position it as a AAA success. It's also a new IP. There are people that will flock to any Blizzard game but people will also flock to Blizzard games that they can identify with. There are more mainstream audiences that know they like Diablo but don't really know or care about anything else that Blizzard makes. They just want to play a new Diablo. Overwatch has no such following and that would be why I think they're marketing it so much.

But overall I feel like people tend to think anything in this day and age that has any sort of marketing budget is "overhyped", I think this is also amplified by the fact that there are more and more small studio games that get praise and recognition with no marketing budget. So if anyone outside of our small community and others is able to recognize and show anticipation for a game it gets viewed as more recognition than usual, because it is.

It was actually under-hyped for nearly the entire time it was in closed beta. Blizzard didn't start the marketing train until this year, and even then, they've been pretty low-key about it compared with, say EA or Ubisoft.

I don't consider "over-hyped" to correlate with price-tag. I'd say it's over-priced for what it's presently offering, and I'm holding off on purchasing because Blizzard hasn't explicitly ruled out the possibility of releasing more heroes/maps in the future for cost.

I enjoy it a lot, and it gives me the "feels" for Quake 3 Arena or pre-hats TF2 in general handling which is a good thing. I'm just not sold on that price tag, unfortunately.

Seems pretty good for what it is. It almost made me want to play something else than Warframe, almost.

It's a Blizzard game of course it's been over hyped.

It's sort of crazy seeing Overwatch getting hyped on Taco Bell cups and during sports game matches while at the bar. That said, the game is solid and worth the excitement I think. I suppose the one thing I could knock on is that they are trying to do the thing TF2 did, spreading out to videos and comics, but rather than do it over years they are doing it even before the game is out, so it's a tad much I guess?

While I completely agree with you that the marketing train only started this year, some gaming websites / channels such as GameSpot and others have been talking about it / hyping it since the end of last summer (right before the first beta on October)

Hmmm.. not sure how to answer this as A) I haven't played it yet and B) doesn't seem to be much consensus about it's quality (settling around "Good" at the least?). So, hard to say if it is over hyped, or rightly hyped. All I can say for sure is that certainly hype is present.

Agree with @matatat, "overhype" is a little hard to define. I guess we could just say overhype is simply more hype than a game deserves, but then we have to be able to define how/why a game deserves hype (score, sales, longevity). This is maybe too much thought spent on this thread but then again I am a serial overthinker! :D

I knew almost nothing about it before playing the beta, and it surprised me by being awesome. So I would say underhyped.

Just thought of this, but at least they aren't pitching this as the next big e-sport right out of the gate. They have that going for them.

Yeah, what were they thinking when they decided to talk about Blizzard's first new IP in seventeen years? Why would anyone care about that.

That's not even close to what I meant

No, its not overhyped. Now to the next question; is it a good game? Yes or no answers only please.

People are still excited after an extensive beta period, which indicates that it's a well-made game. You might not be into it, and that's okay. It's not over-hyped, you just don't share the same opinion as others. They're excited because it's fun. There's nothing wrong with you, them, nor the game. All games are "just ____ with ____" if you choose to be reductive. There's a market for a game like TF2 that isn't 8 or 9 years old. The fact that something similar exists doesn't mean people nobody should try to improve on the foemula.

Hype is personal, so no. The level of excitement from people that want a game like this is right where it should be. Not feeling the same way doesn't mean that level is too high.

It gives me the feeling I got when I first played TF2. Which is especially impressive to me given that TF2 exists and is still great.

It feels like the core of that game, but then with a completely fresh coat of paint on the top of it. I can't wait for it to come out.

TF2 is on of my favorite online games, and there has been nothing really like it since, so i don't mind the comparisons. Overwatch feels super fresh and super good, and it is actually making me nostalgic for the early days of TF2. And considering that it's Blizzard first FPS and their first new IP in 18 years, i think it is safe to say that the hype is both real and justified.

I don't know that you can say definitively that a game is overhyped just based on your own game preferences. It's also not just Youtubers that are excited about it and have spent significant hands on time with it now that we're past the open beta period.

A lot of the disagreement in this thread though does seem to come from the lack of any consistent definition of "overhyped".

Also, if you're playing solo, it seems to do a pretty good job of putting you into matches filled with other people only playing solo so that you're not at a disadvantage against a highly coordinated team that plays together frequently.

I think $40 is fine, but I also thought the price of Titanfall was fine if that's any indication. I've never really understood the dollars to content equation some people have in mind when considering multiplayer focused games. If it's a great game that you can put tens or hundreds of hours into, who cares what the specific number of maps is? How would you know how many maps is enough to justify the price?

I've already played the open beta more than enough to justify a purchase to me.

It's also 12 maps and 4 game modes for the record.

@mrcaptain: Yes *.

*This answer was prepared or accomplished by hermes in his personal capacity. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not reflect the view of his current employer, or any government.

Game is awesome, so no. The only downside is the fact that it's $60 on console, but I'm not sure that has anything to do with hype.

@chaser324: I don't think there is any definitive answer to whether the game is overhyped or not, so it seems to fall under the category of undefined because no one can really know how hyped a game is. All we can do is take an educated guess based on what we've seen. Therefore, I feel it is appropriate to state if a game is overhyped (definitive or not) without sufficient evidence or based on what we've seen/heard, because it is difficult to know either way.

As for being matched with solo players, I don't know whether or not it displays what type of make-up you are playing against. From my few hours of experience, my team consistently did not pick supports or tanks, defaulted to attackers and defenders, and I eventually got tired of being the healer or tank so we would start losing when I chose not to.

Having to play certain roles and not having a preset group to play with usually leaves me having to play support, and this game falls right into that. Being locked to a role because people just want to get kills is exactly where Smite is right now, and it has been out for a while (I play on Xbox). That is where these kind of games break down for me, and stop being fun.

@huntad: I do agree with a lot of your complaints about solo players not considering team composition. It can be a bit frustrating, and I fell into that same issue of playing tank/support because nobody else seemed willing to do it. I guess where we may differ is that I actually did enjoy playing those roles.

That being said, I think that's something that will improve a bit over time as players become more experienced with the game and as the MMR starts to shake out and group you more with similarly skilled players. I also do know enough people getting the game that I'll at least occasionally be able to group up and play with a bit more coordinated effort, and I realize that's something that might not be the case for everyone.

I don't think I can say if it's overhyped or not because a lot of people really seem to enjoy it, much more than I have. It's fine and I've had some satisfying moments with it, but I have some major issues with it that really just make me want to play TF2 instead. It's an incredibly well produced game, and I applaud it for that and believe it probably deserves all the hype it's getting. This is one of the first times where I've had to look at a hugely popular game and say that it's just not for me, though, and that's weird.

I think it depends on where you look honestly - haven't been following it as closely as some other games like Uncharted, but listening to the Bombcast this week got me pretty interested. I think I don't really identify with one or two of the duders, but when it's a near-unanimous "this is doing interesting things" I tend to think that's a decent representation of a diverse group of tastes. The BEAST team was also talking about it a bit and at least piqued my interest more than it was at. Unless I get the review for the site I write for I likely will wait for reviews and impressions to hit some sites, watch some video and make a decision based on that.

It's also a little tough to call something overhyped before release - like by a certain measure Homefront is overhyped because my beta impressions were rocky at best but we still are hearing about the game (again depending on where you look/visit). I'd love to see some sort of scientific study on the basis of hype and expectations. I think it's super fascinating to see and watch things get built up into things they aren't or that developers flat out of have to say like "no oh god no don't that's not at all what this is" and then there's inevitable disappointment. I definitely don't envy PR/Marketing for the simple fact that if you sell something too hard it shatters trust with a studio.

Its a very well made game and its fun to play but it seems like something that would get thin and is not worth paying for, its why I like all these BS multiplayer game "betas" because honestly I got what I needed in 4 or 5 days of it.

I think it is over-hyped in that the content seems a little lacking. I mean the multiplayer is great, but there's literally nothing else. But I guess that's why the game is $40, so meh.

I don't think its overhyped at all I went into the Open beta with Zero expectations and I'm now basically going through withdraw over not having my daily fix of Overwatch since Tuesday morning. :(

Is it overhyped? Probably.
But some of that hype probably comes from the fact that it is a decent product, aswell as the best thing blizzard have put out in years.
That being said, it isn't the second coming or the best thing ever.

They said all maps and heroes would be free, confirmed statement from Jeff Kaplan the game director.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKG8Yx6F7uc

It's a decent new team-based multiplayer shooter with style and we haven't had one of those for a while, I think it's hitting just at the right time. The Blizzard-factor cannot be underestimated either.

I think it is. I really feel like it's a glorified TF2 with less.

Sure, the character design and look is nice, but there's only 3 game modes and it's...40$ PC 60$ console (US)? That's a ridiculous price for something so shallow and one they plan to sell loot crates in after launch. No competitive mode even at the start. The package is horribly light for that cash.

And having played it, honestly, it's nothing special. It feels nice to play, but the spawning system is just nuts to me, the fact that you can literally camp the enemy team's spawn right at the start of the match, and that a ton of the maps are chokepoint fests. Temple of Anubis, anyone? Literally only one way to get to the control point, and that goes for a lot of maps.

I'd buy it if it was 20$ and if the friends I played with in the beta got it, but no more. I think it's absurd they're only selling it for 60$ on the consoles.

But, to each their own. Anyone can use their money how they wish, I just think the content to price is ridiculous.

I do have some serious critiques, but I do believe that it's fascinating just how this game fits into current FPS market. Because right now, if your a new FPS, you either fight for esports? or the Twitch streamer audience? and Overwatch has prime time TV ads..... and it's not tanking dipping like Halo and CoD.

^^^ This.

This is a good game being treated by some as the Second Coming or something, so yeah, it's over hyped. But it's still good, not great but decent enough to tide me over for a while.

After two years of BF4 I am a little burned out so I need something until October, and Overwatch is just over fifty Canadian dollars which is a good price these days. For comparison, Doom is eighty bucks before taxes

Overhyped isn't a thing, its just a subjective viewing. If you wanna view it like that, every single game is overhyped, because some group of people like them.

I think the game is much less fun if you're playing it solo. I've had a blast in it with my group though. As far as the animated shorts and stuff go, I think those are fine. I don't like the writing and the cheesy dialogue in them... but I appreciate their attempt to construct something around this game.

What this man said.

Hype does exist but it's part marketing and part impressions from the people around you but it can't be over hyped.

Things that also don't exist are:

- Underrated

- Overrated

All the previous coverage made me think so and I had no interest, but after trying the open beta on a lark, Overwatch is pretty fun. I would recommend trying it.

Though I don't like Tracer. Her "British" accent is annoying (Sweep yor chimney gov'na? Cor blimey!) and I'm bad at playing with her. Also, some of the promotional story videos are sort of cringey and over-wrought. I don't really get what they're going for, but the gameplay is fun, which is what matters here. I guess they had a lot of story stuff left on the cutting room floor after the Overwatch MMO they were working on was canceled.

Compared to yearly CoD media barrage, I've seen very little promo material or ads from Blizzard. Most of the "hype" if you can call it that is just players talking about their experiences and simply enjoying the game.

I mean yes, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a very good game. It's not going to be anything more than a very good tf2 alike. This said, it is VERY good. It has a lot of casual appeal, is easy to find a match, while still having the depth and complexity to allow it to be competitive. I think that the game will be very well supported, and be very popular.

I think it's positioned itself to be the next big "normie" game.

A massively mainstream experience that'll sweep the gaming landscape for a long time, getting attachment from the kinda people who only fire up their consoles for Fallout 4 or Dark Souls or whatever else springs to mind when you look up #gaming #gamer #nerd on Instagram.... With good reason though. It's an incredibly well-made game. I am also looking forward to it a lot, but it won't be the only game that I'll play exclusively for months and months.

I've been in the Closed Beta since the beginning so I've had a lot of time to process my thoughts on the game and I don't think that this being similar to Team Fortress 2 is an issue. It is Blizzard doing what they do best, taking an existing genre and spending the time to fine tune it to make it both really accessible and surprisingly deep. The difference here I guess is that Team Fortress 2 was already a really refined version of the original Team Fortress's formula, so Overwatch is not a huge step up in quality for the genre in the same way World of Warcraft refined the MMO genre. But I think Overwatch's approach to character variety makes is distinct enough, plus is it not like there is a flood of great Team Fortress style games recently and Valve doesn't seem like they are interested in taking another crack at reinventing the genre.

One of the most interesting parts of the closed beta was when they added D.VA, Genji and Mei because Pharah was dominating matches due to none of the characters having a really dependable counter to her ultimate but both D.VA and Genji have hard counters. So you could kind of see how strong the balance the game was by seeing what it was like before all the pieces were in place.

Yep. Hype is just another word for excitement and anticipation. A lot of people seem excited to play more of this. I'm not one of them but i'm not going to say people are wrong to be excited.

Honestly, everything that comes out of Blizzard is overhyped if you ask me. That's not to say that they games they make aren't really good but with the amount of drool that tends to come out of people's mouths over anything Blizzard sometimes makes me think that even if they just released a literal pile of shit people would still get hyped because it's Blizzard.

Full disclaimer, I haven't tried Overwatch and I probably never will. Competitive shooters just aren't my thing.

@darkbeatdk said:

The only games I have played recently are the console versions of Fallout 4 and Dark Souls III, so this was pretty funny. I have no interest in Overwatch though, so I can still escape your stereotype!

@paulmako: They'll get you next time! Next tiiiiiiimmmeeeeee!!!!~~~~

No.

Considering the vast majority of opinions I have heard/read all lean towards really enjoying it, and the worst of them being "It is well built, but not my type of game", I'm going to say no.

@likeassur: I actually kept playing Titanfall periodically for a long time after its release. The Xbox One community didn't drop off nearly as much as PC, and my interest level didn't drop off as much as your's apparently did.

I see where you're coming from. Those potential caveats of the community and competitiveness not holding up could certainly apply to any multiplayer focused game, but I already played the beta for 20+ hours and desperately want to play more. For anyone in that camp, I don't think those caveats apply.

If you're the type of person that doesn't like competitive multiplayer shooters, and it seems like maybe you're in that camp, then even an extremely well made one of those won't hold your interest for very long. It's the same way there are people that have played thousands of hours of Dota 2, and while I can appreciate the craftsmanship there, I could barely handle playing it for more than a few hours before uninstalling it.