Overwatch 2 launched last week to long queues, DDoS attacks, and bugs that kept many from logging in, all locking people out of playing. You'll be catching up on a few challenges for the battle pass now if you struggled to get in over the last few days, so Blizzard is handing out a couple of freebies.
"To help make up for any lost time, we're planning to run several Double Match XP weekends: we will confirm the specific dates for these soon", a new blog post titled Thank you, heroes. Let's talk about our next steps for Overwatch 2 stated. "We'll also be giving all players who log in from October 25 through to the end of Season One an all-new Cursed Captain Reaper Legendary skin and a Health Pack Weapon Charm. These items will become part of your collection from the first time you log in during that time window."
Aside from free cosmetics, Blizzard is working on several stability updates and patches, with one planned for later this week. A common bug plaguing Xbox in particular is booting people out of games if they get an achievement, while Bastion has been removed entirely for the time being as an exploit was discovered that let you spam his artillery strike infinitely during the eight-second window.
Reaper's new skin arrives just in time for the Halloween season, though it's unclear how festivities will operate under the new free-to-play model. In previous years, seasons added new skins that would be put into themed loot boxes, giving you ample time to grind for them. But with cosmetics shifting to a battle pass and exclusively coin-based system, it remains to be seen how they'll be earned. Regardless, everyone will get a free Reaper skin to celebrate the spooky season.
The rocky launch has done a number on Overwatch 2's reputation, dragging its Metacritic user score down to 1.4, so it remains to be seen if Blizzard can pull it back up with these plans.