Overwatch development has slowed due to the in-game toxicity

In Overwatch’s latest Developer Update, Game Director Jeff Kaplan addressed the issue of in-game toxicity. The almost 8-minute video titled ‘Play Nice, Play Fair’ details what Blizzard plans to do to combat this “rising tide of toxicity or bad behavior in the game,” which has even slowed development on the game.

First off, Kaplan notes that player-reporting tools have made their way from PC to consoles, making it much easier to take action against those deemed toxic. Of the 480,000 accounts that Blizzard took action against since Overwatch released, around 340,000 were the result of the player-reporting system.

Kaplan went on to say that players should “take a deep look inward” and try to be nicer to one another. Not only does toxicity create an unwelcome community and gaming experience, but it also takes time away from actual game development.

“The bad behaviour not just ruining the experience for one another, but the bad behavior is actually making the game progress in terms of development at a much slower rate,” said Kaplan.