The popular shooter Overwatch 2 has been coming under fire for its poor handling of sexual content, mostly from concerned parents. The primary cause of the problem seems to be ineffective moderation, inappropriately themed custom games modes like "Sexual Assault Simulator" having been spotted in the server browser.The news about this particular game mode comes from a user on Twitter going by the name of LynnMBE. "Do not let your children play Overwatch 2," the user posted. “My 12 year old son found custom games within it, one called 'Sexual Harassment' and one game that simulated the female characters being raped. Thankfully my son realized it was bad, closed the game, and told me. Don't play.”Screenshots from the custom game mode have since emerged. “This is version 1.2 of the new and unique Sexual Harassment Simulator,” the description reads. “Find new friends, live a normal life, and give birth to a child!""Inappropriate or explicit content has absolutely no place in our game," a spokesperson at Blizzard remarked in a comment made about the matter to PC Gamer. "We immediately removed the user created game mode once made aware of its existence. We are continually working to improve automatic filters to prevent inappropriate user created content and manually removing any that are not caught by the system."
While the current listings do appear to have been removed from the server browser, the code which grants access to the custom game mode is apparently still active, meaning that anyone could at least in theory get things going again. Whether or not Blizzard is able to find a long-term solution to the issue remains to be seen.