Determined not to lose the Overwatch players it just won back, Blizzard turns on the free loot tap as server issues plague the hero shooter’s big return event

Blizzard is offering Overwatch players in-game compensation after bugs prevented some from completing certain challenges during the Talon x Overwatch event. The completion requirements for other tasks will also be lowered to counteract time lost.

A statement on Blizzard's forums informs players that anyone who completed at least one event challenge in the first week of the event will automatically receive in-game compensation. This will include all of the rewards from both faction base passes and two prestige passes. This is because many players were unable to switch factions during the event in order to complete both passes.

Rewards include 14 lootboxes, Sojourn and Emre VO lines, Overwatch and Talon titles, an Overwatch weapon charm, and the Emre Namecard. Further, pass completion for Legendary Faction Titles will be lowered by one. Essentially, if a challenge asked you to complete eight Overwatch passes, you now only have to do seven.

If you haven't received your lootboxes yet, then there is no need to panic. The in-game gifts will be slowly distributed to all applicable accounts; you may just have to wait a while before it's your turn. The drop is automatic, so if you're eligible to receive the free stuff, there is nothing that you need to do.

Overwatch recently received a rebrand with Talon x Overwatch serving as the game's first return event. Dropping the 2 actually seems to have worked for the hero shooter, as it doubled its previous Steam concurrent user peak, with 165,000 players joining the fray via that platform alone.

It's disappointing that a game, which only just turned its fortunes around, would run into such devastating server issues, but hopefully the legendary lootbox will do something to stem the tide of players just giving up.

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