Overwatch 2 removes Mei for at least 2 weeks due to ice wall exploit

Blizzard confirmed that it is temporarily removing Mei from Overwatch 2 until November 15 due to a bug discovered related to her Ice Wall ability. [#OW2] We are temporarily disabling Mei to address a bug with her Ice Wall ability that allows heroes to reach unintended locations. We are working to address these issues as quickly as possible and aim to bring Mei back in our next upcoming patch which is set for November 15. Hot off the heels of the removal of both Bastion and Torbjorn due to bugs that would render most of the cast unplayable for players, Mei is the next hero to be temporarily removed from Overwatch 2‘s roster. Both Bastion and Torbjorn have since been reintroduced to the game, but it will not be until November 15, which is when the next scheduled patch for the game, that Mei is due to return. The reason for Mei’s suspension is stated as being related to a bug involving her Ice Wall ability allowing players to access areas of certain maps they weren’t intended to. By using this ability in specific locations, which creates a wall of ice that grows upward from the ground, Mei is able to exit the normal boundaries of the map. This not only made them essentially invincible, as they couldn’t be seen from inside the map but also allowed them to deal damage from complete safety. Overwatch 2’s launch has been plagued with issues of all sorts since it launched in October. Despite the extremely long queues and DDoS attacks at launch, plus backlash over its battle pass and monetization systems, the game has seen massive player counts across all platforms. While having three characters have to be taken out of the game within the first few weeks of a game’s launch isn’t a great start for the sequel, at least Blizzard is recognizing and working to fix these exploits and bugs as quickly as possible. Blizzard is celebrating 100 million players in Overwatch 2 by bringing back a fan-favorite skin, along with a new map and other changes for its 11th season that launches on June 20. In an announcement Monday, the studio revealed that the theme of Season 11 will be Super Mega Ultrawatch, where players can unlock superhero-themed Legendary Ultrawatch skins and go up against the evil and magical Mythic Calamity Empress Ashe and B.O.B. These skins for Genji, Repaer, and Sojourn will be available in the Season 11 premium battle pass. Overwatch 2 finally got some of its long-awaited PvE content last August, but it doesn’t look like more is on the way, according to some new reports. Earlier this week, a story from Kotaku indicated that the future of Overwatch 2’s story-driven PvE missions was in question after the first batch of missions, which were released as paid DLC for a free-to-play game and sold poorly. Now, a new report from Bloomberg affirms that. As part of a newsletter outlining wider frustrations Blizzard’s developers have with how the company ties profit-sharing bonuses to the performance of games that specific teams make, Bloomberg touched on how the Overwatch 2 team’s bonuses were negatively impacted by the failure of the PvE content. A lot of that PvE team was apparently laid off in January when Microsoft cut 1,900 games-related jobs, and sources now tell Bloomberg that Blizzard does not plan to finish its previously planned PvE content.