Overwatch’s Blizzard World map has never been universally beloved, but shortly after Blizzard decked its halls with holiday cheer yesterday, the map apparently decided to go full Grinch. Teams found themselves beset on all sides by busted spawn rooms and glitched payloads. Now Blizzard World is shut down.
In Overwatch, maps have spawn rooms that are supposed to open up as soon as matches are underway. For some reason, Blizzard World’s spawn room has just stopped letting some players, you know, play the game. One, The_Nerk, posted a clip in which their team cried out in helpless confusion from behind locked doors as their enemies ran roughshod over the map. Eventually, The_Nerk’s team was booted from the match for inactivity.
Other players proceeded to chime in with reports of bugs ranging from similar spawn room issues to immobile payloads to eternal overtime. Today, Blizzard announced that it’s temporarily disabling Blizzard World, as well as modes that include it.
“We’ve identified an issue with Blizzard World preventing players from leaving spawn areas at the start of the match and completing the match,” the company said on Overwatch’s forums. “Due to the impact of this issue, we have temporarily disabled Blizzard World in all regions on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One while we troubleshoot.”
It also noted in a tweet that modes “such as No Limits and Mystery Heroes” will also be disabled while it tries to figure out what’s going on. There’s currently no ETA for when everything will be re-enabled, but Blizzard says it’s a “top priority.”