Overwatch Free Weekend Brings Server Errors, Downtime

The free weekend currently offered to console players of Blizzard’s team shooter Overwatch isn’t free of one thing: server errors. It appears that the impending sudden influx of console players, despite their general better hygiene than their PC counterparts, has put too much strain on servers. Or perhaps it’s just preparation or coincidence? Whatever the case, I can testify to these ongoing recent errors from personal experience. Where I’m used to seeing this:

Overwatch: Origins Edition_20160817120026

I am now seeing this:

Overwatch: Origins Edition_20160909220019
That tiny text says “Error starting game, trying again.”

Problems have included matches not starting properly and players getting randomly disconnected from a match, only to automatically re-enter it a moment later. The error I screencapped above has shown up not just at the beginning of matches, but even in the middle, when multiple (possibly all, but I can’t confirm) players would be disconnected halfway through. Prior to this, many (myself included) experienced trouble even connecting to the game at all. The community has started to catch on to these other errors and comment on them, though Blizzard hasn’t yet issued an official reaction.

Hopefully Overwatch is back and operating at 100% by the time you read this tale of woe; the free weekend in scheduled to begin about five hours after this writing. If you’re already a player, how’s it rolling for you? I can’t get all the way through a match for a while.

With all the fresh meat, this could be a great opportunity to see more of this:

Overwatch: Origins Edition_20160829121900

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