Overwatch 2 delays first major balance patch over a "critical issue"

Overwatch 2's big mid-season balance patch has been delayed. 

The update was scheduled to go live today, November 15, but Blizzard pushed it back at the last minute. In a post to the Blizzard forums, community manager Craig explained that "today’s patch is delayed as we work to resolve a critical issue. We’ll provide an update here and set the patch live as soon as the problem is addressed."

"This includes the upcoming balance changes, bug fixes, including those that affect Mei, and core content updates we have planned for this patch," the post continues. This delay will also affect Overwatch League viewership bonuses and cosmetics, but the standard shop refresh, as well as daily and weekly challenges, will reset as normal. 

This update was announced just under three weeks ago, with nerfs to Genji and Zarya headlining the balance changes. Sombra is also getting a non-trivial nerf, and Kiriko and D.Va are getting some slight tweaks as well. Getting ahead of players shocked by the lack of Sojourn nerfs, lead hero designer Alec Dawson was quick to confirm Blizzard is actively looking at changes to the infamous DPS. 

This patch was also scheduled to free Mei from Blizzard jail after she was disabled two weeks ago following the discovery of a game-breaking interaction with Kiriko. It's unclear if Mei is related to the "critical issue" that caused Blizzard to delay this patch, but if she is, that is kind of funny. Mei was the third hero to be disabled in the span of a month, though things have quieted down since. 

We don't yet know if this delay is going to be a few hours or more like a few days; Blizzard support has been quiet since that initial forum post. Nevertheless, Blizzard says "we’ll be working on releasing this patch as soon as possible." 

After Ramattra, the next Overwatch 2 hero will be a new support.