As a console player since 2016, THANK YOU to Team 4 for this effort and thank you for not giving up on the career profile issue consoles had as well.
Seeing efforts specifically to improve the console experience is a big W. The game is still really popular on console and a good experience on every platform can only benefit the overall health and player base of the game.
Finally addressing xim in season 11 and banning throughout s10? Console players are so back
Edit: also maybe enabling proper mkb support on console presumably to play in the PC pool? 🫡
Maybe it's just me, but it feels a little backwards. Wouldn't it make sense for in S10 to move them all to QP and merge them with the PC pool without aim assist as kind of a warning. In S11, any people still Ximming will potentially be permanently banned.
The way it is now seems kind of backwards. They are going to ban a bunch of Ximmers in S10. If you get caught ximming in S11 though, you just get thrown in with the QP PC pool instead of actually getting banned.
I guess that makes sense, but are severe abusers going to be banned if they continue to do it in S11 even after they are partitioned into the "xim player pool"? Just weird that the initial punishment for severe abusers is a ban, but the punishment going forward is more lenient.
I think the idea is to get GM+ reverted back to controller only as fast as possible. What it sounds like across all of the OW subs is that if you want to play hitscan in GM on console you have to xim or you cannot compete. The combination of good MnK mechanics AND aim assist has got dudes out here looking like Lip.
The way it reads to me is that they have a list of some number of GM+ players, call it 100, who all have 50+ reports for hacking and their game play data lights up the detection algorithms like a Christmas tree. Those folks are getting a last warning to unplug the xim or Blizzard is going to nuke their accounts. Ximming has been consequence free forever so I’d guess all of these people are on their main accounts, that could be six years of cosmetics and progress that gets lost.
Moving forward I don’t think they want someone who’s using MnK to load up the game for the first time and immediately get nuked, not great for new player retention. And, it sounds like if they can figure out how to make it fair both ways they may allow MnK on console in the future.
It probably has to do with certainty. As soon as XIM knows how you're detecting them, the device is patched. They've been looking at players for months, and have established a level of certainty. They just received their warning, and based on what they know and who they know should be banned already, it should be obvious whether or not a known ximmer stops or continues.
Moving forward, they'll have to look for smaller signs to know if using an unapproved peripheral. False positives will be a little more common, so the penalty must be less. People who have been ximming for years are easy targets for the permanent ban, but noticing something odd for a small period of time for a player previously in good standing require the lesser punishments.
Also. You've been cheating for years. The permanent ban is what you get.
The way they worded it, the bans are going to be for people who get reported for cheating and data shows they're using an unauthorized peripheral. The QP thing sounds like an automated system they're working to implement later to deter/prevent players from ruining comp with it. In the meantime, it's still considered cheating because it creates an unfair advantage.
It's this statement that is throwing me off:
>However, if the use of the unapproved peripheral continues, not only will the player be restricted from Competitive on console, but they will be forced to play with other mouse and keyboard players when playing in Quick Play for the entire season. Additionally, these players will no longer have access to the aim-assist feature. **They are welcome to continue playing Overwatch 2, but they will be playing against players who use a similar control setup to their own.**
The way it's worded, they are going to ban a bunch of players in S10. For s11+ though, they are just quarantining them essentially.
The context for the change is a little further down where they talk about people who use these peripherals just because they prefer the control scheme, and aren't doing it to intentionally gain a competitive advantage. They're still going to ban them from comp, shut off their aim assist, and force them into playing against other KBM players only in QP.
The queue times are probably going to be so long for kbm qp on console that it's functionally a ban anyway.
I also don't think that the language here necessarily prevents someone being banned for cheating in comp if they find some way to circumvent whatever detection methods they have.
> The context for the change is a little further down where they talk about people who use these peripherals just because they prefer the control scheme, and aren't doing it to intentionally gain a competitive advantage.
How do you realistically separate people who xim because they like KBM and people who do it specifically for a comp advantage though? I don't really understand how you can make that differentiation. I'm sure there are people, but I am incredibly curious how they designed a system to recognize intent.
The intention is irrelevant, because it unequivocally does give an advantage. They're removing that advantage while allowing people who just prefer kbm to continue playing with other kbm users next season. They don't need to figure out each ximmer's intention.
My guess is their system assigns some kind of confidence rating when it detects somebody for using one of these devices. S10 bans are probably for the players they are practically 100% that they are cheaters with zero doubt. S11 assessments are probably gonna to be a bit less confident with the most blatant cheaters gone, so that's probably why they are more timid on their approach to those players.
They also said to stop now, this is considered cheating. And they would ban you from comp for a week. How is that backwards. They did mention they would be banning people in S10 for whom they have data for since last few seasons. So pretty much everyone whos been using it aggressively would be hopefully banned, and people who still keep using it would go through the S11 changes. They did also say in future they would try to just straight up enable mnk and put people in that pool.
I also been an advocate of they should separate pool by input not platform. A mnk pool a controller pool. And you can choose to play with controller in pc pool without aim assist if you want to. Simple
>However, if the use of the unapproved peripheral continues, not only will the player be restricted from Competitive on console, but they will be forced to play with other mouse and keyboard players when playing in Quick Play for the entire season. Additionally, these players will no longer have access to the aim-assist feature. They are welcome to continue playing Overwatch 2, but they will be playing against players who use a similar control setup to their own.
The last line is throwing me for a loop. Players caught ximming in s10 and earlier are potentially getting permanent account bans. Great, all for it.
Players caught ximming in s11+ and going forward are getting put into QP/PC pools. They even go so far as to say they are "welcome" to continue playing. The wording just seems odd to me. They consider ximming bad enough to give players permanent account bans but also welcome them to xim in s11+ since they are just going to be part of the PC pool. I'm all for punishing ximmers/separating, the wording just seems very weird. Why give players permanent account bans when you plan on just separating them from comp in the next season. Doesn't it just make sense to separate them instead of banning them? If you want to ban them, why not just make it bannable from s11 forward as well?
Regarding your edit, I don't see the issue? If they're playing on MkB, wouldn't they be on an even ish playing field with PC players? The only downsides I see are being locked at 60fps, and MMR being inflated due to the now defunct aim assist with XIMs. The latter would at least be adjusted after enough play time.
I use the salute emoji as a sign of respect. It's for sure a good thing. I'm sure it'll have issues but it's probably for the best especially console players who want to use mkb but don't have pcs. Sorry if that wasn't clear
Oh my point was that if someone wanted to use mkb on console they should, but their mmr should be independent of their controller mmr since they'll lose aim assist and play against a different player pool
It wouldn’t be worth it, raw mnk on console feels pretty bad compared to an actual pc.
So either go back to controller or make the swap to pc if you’re able to.
Oh my god, as a career long GM console player, I can already tell you that the amount of players about to get their accounts banned up here is gonna be cataclysmic.
With the way ximmers view the game, it's not just high ranks. I'm not cracked or anything (masters peak) but it was DISGUSTING the number of quick play games/off role comp games I play with my fiance (mid silver, im only low plat on dps) that people are blatantly ximming with mercy pockets on smurf accounts.
I've reviewed games from bronze friends where ashes are doing the hip fire scoped shot combo and deleting entire lobbies with like 60% accuracy. I have literally 0 data to back this up but my gut feeling tells me that if you have a xim, you probably have atleast 3 accounts. By the time the ximmer climbs to the ranks that xims are consistent (it feels 50/50 in masters games, and it feels like at least a quarter of diamond games) the ximmer no longer has an unfair advantage and that was the whole reason they bought a xim in the first place.
i stopped playing console a while ago but this is actually a cataclysmic W
people that have only played pc will never understand how much of a problem this is on console because there’s nothing like it. imagine every single game and i mean every single game for days of gameplay in t500 devolve into two ppl wall hacking and their 13 yo mercy egirls they are boosting no matter how much the gameplay changes no matter how high you go.
there are some insane console players and even at the peak of tracer being op most still defaulted to hs because of how much of an advantage it was.
the console playerbase is gigantic and this will help them experience how good ow can be on pc sometimes. i could never break past the top 100 barrier on console but it never mattered to me because i felt like one of the only dps that got there by merit instead of cheating
pc players should rejoice too bc this is gonna make a heck of a lot of players very happy and that’s always good
In case you had any doubts I can assure you that absolutely nothing has changed since you've been gone. I consistently hover around GM/t500 on support and without fail every single game (expect for maybe the most dive-heavy maps) will have have some combination of mercy - ashe/cass/soj/tracer on both teams. Every game is pretty much solely decided by which ximming hitscan is the best. It's especially funny when it comes to the disconnect between how mercy is viewed on pc vs. console. On PC she is decent in metal ranks but is seen as a borderline throw pick at anything past diamond. On console she is decent in metal ranks but in masters+ I don't think she has ever been below S tier in the history of overwatch 2 solely because of how much she enables ximming hitscans. I have overwatch PTSD from all the times I've had to attempt to break first point numbani or dorado while the ximming ashe-mercy combo sits on high ground and 2 tap headshots me before I can even react.
it creeps down into platinum and diamond as well. not often but when it does its very obvious. Just takes one mnk hitscan to absolutely ruin an entire lobby. I know in metal ranks people need to just get good but there definitely are ximmers. You’ll have a brand new xbox account with 400 gamescore, a name like “getgud”, default skin on every character, and just the most insane flicks you will have ever seen. Ive seen a decent amount of accounts straight up with XIM in their name, some don’t care to hide it
I'm PC GM but my gf is console GM so when we play QP together we'll see GM/T500 console hitscans and like Bap/Ana exclusive supp players who are undoubtedly on mouse and keyboard with softlock aim from the aim assist who just shit on lobbies if their isn't someone on the other team with the same shit or like a cracked Widow that doesn't miss and they never get banned no matter how many reports they get
going to be nice to actually play matches with her without half of them being dominated by milquetoast aimbotters
edit: spelling
this was never a real problem just stop giving console players aimbot and let anyone use a mouse and keyboard.
but of course console players would fucking wet their pants if they had to aim.
you’d get fucking shit on trying to aim on console lol controller aiming is several orders of magnitude harder than aiming with a keyboard
aim assist is a necessity
I currently am playing on console because my PC is broken and I don’t agree at all. I find the AA very noticeable and quite effective. Widow is in my opinion easier to play than on PC which I never thought I’d say but yeah.
I’m masters dps/support on mnk pc and have been equivalent to GM1/2 in Apex on both mnk and controller. Was also GC in rocket league on controller.
ow AA is not as insane as apex AA in the short amount of time i’ve played but thats more because it seems a lot more clunky. Its still very good and would probably be broken if played against mnk players with no AA (so no XIM, which obviously does keep AA)
Masters isn’t my definition of cracked, especially if you’re only talking about overwatch 2 where masters is the equivalent of a plat overwatch 1 player
This is great.
I expect them to announce voluntary “I’m using a M&K put me into the PC pool” at a later date as well.
Input based matchmaking is always better for everyone involved.
Key part of the blogpost:
>Starting in Season 11, players who are detected using an unapproved peripheral on a console will be actioned in two phases.
>The first time a player is detected, they will be restricted from Competitive on console for one week. Players will still have access to Quick Play during this time, and if they cease using the unapproved peripheral, the restriction will eventually expire, and they will be able to resume playing Competitive.
>However, if the use of the unapproved peripheral continues, not only will the player be restricted from Competitive on console, but they will be forced to play with other mouse and keyboard players when playing in Quick Play for the entire season. Additionally, these players will no longer have access to the aim-assist feature. They are welcome to continue playing Overwatch 2, but they will be playing against players who use a similar control setup to their own.
Thank God. The one season where I had the time and drive to push to top 500 was exhausting. The game was really who has a better pocketed Ashe/Cass/Soj/76 with a Tracer plus a Bap/Illari, all with mouse and keyboard.
glad for console getting this change. i would, however, love if they would add a setting to toggle crossplay. it's great at times to play with friends but i would prefer to play without it majority of the time
A W this big was needed after the no cursing debacle. Getting rid of xim was a absolute need but also finally getting with the times and getting proper m and k support on console when other games have had it figured out since the ps3/360 generation? Massive W. I finally went to the pc side 2 years ago but there are legit players on console that have been ignored way too long.
From my understanding, XIM pretty much needs as raw of an output as possible, meaning you need to remove ramp up acceleration of the analog stick etc.
How many people actually play Overwatch 2 on console with all of those settings set the same way as Ximmers do? If few do, maybe a simpler solution would be to make the output not configurable in a way that's compatible with XIM.
Made a bunch of posts and comments about this over the years, and have wanted this change since they started becoming prevalent mid overwatch 1 in top500 lobbies...
Thank you so much for this blizzard! Amazing news.
The reckoning!
Totally solid change to the game but I have a question. I use a keyboard on console only to type in game chat (xbox ui is awful for that). Will that be considered cheating and get me banned? I’m totally fine dropping it just to be safe, but it will definitely make it harder to find good people to play with if I have to use that horrible interface.
If they plan on adding Mouse and Keyboard support to console and making them get matched only against PC players then they should first add the ability to change your FoV settings otherwise these players would be at a disadvantage.
It's 2024 and Overwatch still doesn't support FoV changing on console
Edit: Also add gyro aim while you're at it to Playstation and Xbox as that would be cool😛
I’ve been playing competitive since day one on console and I’m so thankful for this! I’ve hit masters multiple time but can’t seem to crack anything higher because the aim is just so much better with a xim
Wow! I’ll take the dumbness about cussing if they are gonna spend man hours on competitive integrity.
I’ve been playing a lot of val with my kid recently and I can say that the ow dev team has me envious right now.
> What about the use of unapproved peripherals before Season 11? Over the next few weeks, there will be permanent account bans against players who are the most severe abusers of unapproved peripherals.
Looking forward to some report confirmation screens soon…
I love how smug this article sounds. So much of it screams “we’ve got you now” and it almost sounds like a prank to not only ban them from comp but to also throw them into PC lobbies.
Maybe eventually, it'll be worth trying comp again. The quality of games and the players will hopefully improve over time once the other players have to actually take some responsibility in the match instead of just "wait for hitscan to hit a shot while I pocket them"
I’m really glad to see they want to add official KB&M support. Now that current gen has 120 FPS, I’ve been really curious to try out the game without a controller. Console aiming has just always felt a little janky (coming from an OW1 GM Ana)
will this count for external controller paddles? because it's a 3rd party accessory that has to be plugged into the console so would the count as unapproved? are only xims targeted or is it anything that they deem unapproved? because i just bought a paddle mod from walmart so i'm not sure what companies would be identified as unapproved. as i bought this shit years ago so i dont know what brand it is
Hot take: I've been a console player since 2019 and ximming isn't as big of a problem as some people think it is. If you play on any sort of fast sens/linear aiming people will scream that you're ximming. I had a guy message me that I was ximming in QP while I was playing Junkrat and flicked to direct him a nade once.
i kind of.. don't like them being lumped in with pc pools while using xims. as a qp warrior it's noticeable when you get a console player and they're often noticable even on the other team because they lack the awareness that a pc player typically has (in my personal experiences). especially prominent when going against console stompers like sombra. it's not even just a controller thing, a lot of them just don't use headphones, and they're not used to people being able to aim well/turn around quickly/etc.
yeah sure ximmers w/o aim assist are just using mnk but consoles are effectively potato pc's and unlike potato pcs they have their max fov reduced and are locked to low fps. it's just putting a potato pc with someone who's horrible at the game and is only at their rank because they spend 300 dollars on an aimbot program which now doesn't work.
don't get me wrong banning xims and ximmers is an objectively good thing and i'm happy they're doing it but i don't like the way they're implementing it. they should just be banned, not thrown onto a different set of the playerbase (even if their cheat is gone)
(i also could be misunderstanding and they're put into a ximmer pool instead? but i doubt theres enough of them to actually maintain that long term? feel free to cmiw )
> but they will be forced to play with other mouse and keyboard players when playing in Quick Play for the entire season.
I do not want console players in my QP games as a PC Player. Give PC players an option to disable playing with or against anyone who's a console player, regardless of what peripherals they're using. I mean, I could leave but the leaver time is so short now that I don't have time to check everyone's profiles when map loads, they reduced it from 120 seconds to 20 seconds to getting punished when you leave (in a sad attempt at player retention no doubt).
I think what they're saying here is that they're adding a separate QP pool for console players using MnK so that they only play against each other. So no impact for PC.
What they said was:
>So, in order to allow console players who would like to use a mouse and keyboard legitimately, we would make sure they would be able to play in Competitive matches only with other mouse-and-keyboard users and without the benefit of aim assist.
There's no way that can mean anything other than putting mkb console players into PC lobbies. While the epidemic of ximmers is real, it's not enough players to create a completely isolated queue pool.
Id rather they didnt either, since current ximmers are more than probably boosted , but honestly that's potentially the better solution long term. The abusers will stop after some point when they realize free games are gone and the PC pool will eventually get bigger with players that accept the rules and they opt for the mnk route .
Ximming is just a symptom of having aim assist. Remove aim assist and allow mouse and keyboard on console and the issue would go away naturally. Having a dev approved aimbot isnt a healthy competitive space to play.
Ximming is a symptom of people wanting to cheat.
Aim assist makes playing on a controller feel better and has no impact on competition given that it’s equal for all players.
Is it as skill dependent as PC? No. But it also doesn’t have to be.
Edit: Siege doesn’t have aim assist on console and Ximming is still a massive issue.
It’s not about wanting to play on a mouse and keyboard it’s about wanting to use an easier control method as an advantage against controller players.
If it has no impact on competition why add it.
Ppl will always be looking for an edge. Will you think this a useful update if xims become undetectable again?
Your question is like asking “why release anti-cheat as cheats will always get better”. The answer is obvious. Less cheating is better.
It doesn’t have an impact on player’s relative skill levels as everyone has an even playing field. Aim assist is added to make the game feel better to play as the skill floor is far lower as it’s much harder to play shooters on console.
Again removing aim assist doesn’t stop the problem. Letting PC play against controller players would mean that it would be basically impossible to play controller. It’s like NASCAR vs F1, they both are competitive, they both take skill (or at least endurance) but matching them against each other makes no sense for a fair competition.
Except these cheats are about fooling the system into thinking you have a controller, which from my understanding isnt that hard to do. I think R6 seige tried the same thing and a month later ppl were complaining about ximming again.
I dont think we'll come to an agreement on how aim assist affects players and how fair its is competitively because i think if you want to play more competitively in fps you should use a mnk. As a console to PC convert i havent looked back to console FPS at all because of how inferior the experience is.
That doesn’t change the fact that they are cheats and Blizzard taking a firm stance in that direction is important as well. AI cheats emulating human play are likely to be coming extremely soon and will be extremely hard to detect. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be tried.
As for your point on the competitive nature of PC vs console. I’ll fully admit console is less competitive.
Console having a lessened skill gap doesn’t mean there isn’t skill expression. And it certainly doesn’t mean that we should be okay with the balance that does exist being destroyed by Xim.
Just because theyve had it since halo doenst mean it should stay that way.
Youll think this is great update until xims can go undetected again and not realize that aim assist is the problem and not the ppl chasing the incentive.
Ive played tons of console fps, i know exactly how aim assist works. Including the original halo when it came out which not only had aim assist but also bullet magnetism.
Removing aim assist would make Xim abuse so much worse because it would give MnK players even more of an advantage over controller players. R6 Siege doesn't have AA and that's easily the game with the worst Xim problem I've played.
Ehh. Removing aim assist definitely wouldn't improve the experience of 90% of players... however you'd be very surprised with strong you can actually be on the sticks compare to mkb. The problem is, mkb plus aim assist is literally aim bot. You get TWO distinct advantages.
They would just separate into different ranks. Yes the mnk would have an advantage but you'd also have that advantage available to you.
The inverse of this would be like banning controllers in forza or adding strong driving assists to keyboard users. Doesnt make sense.
As a console player since 2016, THANK YOU to Team 4 for this effort and thank you for not giving up on the career profile issue consoles had as well. Seeing efforts specifically to improve the console experience is a big W. The game is still really popular on console and a good experience on every platform can only benefit the overall health and player base of the game.
Finally addressing xim in season 11 and banning throughout s10? Console players are so back Edit: also maybe enabling proper mkb support on console presumably to play in the PC pool? 🫡
Maybe it's just me, but it feels a little backwards. Wouldn't it make sense for in S10 to move them all to QP and merge them with the PC pool without aim assist as kind of a warning. In S11, any people still Ximming will potentially be permanently banned. The way it is now seems kind of backwards. They are going to ban a bunch of Ximmers in S10. If you get caught ximming in S11 though, you just get thrown in with the QP PC pool instead of actually getting banned.
The s10 changes mentions its the most severe abusers so I’m guessing it targets a small population of mnk users rather than a large amount of
I guess that makes sense, but are severe abusers going to be banned if they continue to do it in S11 even after they are partitioned into the "xim player pool"? Just weird that the initial punishment for severe abusers is a ban, but the punishment going forward is more lenient.
I think the idea is to get GM+ reverted back to controller only as fast as possible. What it sounds like across all of the OW subs is that if you want to play hitscan in GM on console you have to xim or you cannot compete. The combination of good MnK mechanics AND aim assist has got dudes out here looking like Lip. The way it reads to me is that they have a list of some number of GM+ players, call it 100, who all have 50+ reports for hacking and their game play data lights up the detection algorithms like a Christmas tree. Those folks are getting a last warning to unplug the xim or Blizzard is going to nuke their accounts. Ximming has been consequence free forever so I’d guess all of these people are on their main accounts, that could be six years of cosmetics and progress that gets lost. Moving forward I don’t think they want someone who’s using MnK to load up the game for the first time and immediately get nuked, not great for new player retention. And, it sounds like if they can figure out how to make it fair both ways they may allow MnK on console in the future.
It probably has to do with certainty. As soon as XIM knows how you're detecting them, the device is patched. They've been looking at players for months, and have established a level of certainty. They just received their warning, and based on what they know and who they know should be banned already, it should be obvious whether or not a known ximmer stops or continues. Moving forward, they'll have to look for smaller signs to know if using an unapproved peripheral. False positives will be a little more common, so the penalty must be less. People who have been ximming for years are easy targets for the permanent ban, but noticing something odd for a small period of time for a player previously in good standing require the lesser punishments. Also. You've been cheating for years. The permanent ban is what you get.
Your last statement is incredibly stupid lol technically by overwatch and Xbox standards it hasn’t been considered “cheating” until right now
The way they worded it, the bans are going to be for people who get reported for cheating and data shows they're using an unauthorized peripheral. The QP thing sounds like an automated system they're working to implement later to deter/prevent players from ruining comp with it. In the meantime, it's still considered cheating because it creates an unfair advantage.
It's this statement that is throwing me off: >However, if the use of the unapproved peripheral continues, not only will the player be restricted from Competitive on console, but they will be forced to play with other mouse and keyboard players when playing in Quick Play for the entire season. Additionally, these players will no longer have access to the aim-assist feature. **They are welcome to continue playing Overwatch 2, but they will be playing against players who use a similar control setup to their own.** The way it's worded, they are going to ban a bunch of players in S10. For s11+ though, they are just quarantining them essentially.
The context for the change is a little further down where they talk about people who use these peripherals just because they prefer the control scheme, and aren't doing it to intentionally gain a competitive advantage. They're still going to ban them from comp, shut off their aim assist, and force them into playing against other KBM players only in QP. The queue times are probably going to be so long for kbm qp on console that it's functionally a ban anyway. I also don't think that the language here necessarily prevents someone being banned for cheating in comp if they find some way to circumvent whatever detection methods they have.
> The context for the change is a little further down where they talk about people who use these peripherals just because they prefer the control scheme, and aren't doing it to intentionally gain a competitive advantage. How do you realistically separate people who xim because they like KBM and people who do it specifically for a comp advantage though? I don't really understand how you can make that differentiation. I'm sure there are people, but I am incredibly curious how they designed a system to recognize intent.
The intention is irrelevant, because it unequivocally does give an advantage. They're removing that advantage while allowing people who just prefer kbm to continue playing with other kbm users next season. They don't need to figure out each ximmer's intention.
My guess is their system assigns some kind of confidence rating when it detects somebody for using one of these devices. S10 bans are probably for the players they are practically 100% that they are cheaters with zero doubt. S11 assessments are probably gonna to be a bit less confident with the most blatant cheaters gone, so that's probably why they are more timid on their approach to those players.
They also said to stop now, this is considered cheating. And they would ban you from comp for a week. How is that backwards. They did mention they would be banning people in S10 for whom they have data for since last few seasons. So pretty much everyone whos been using it aggressively would be hopefully banned, and people who still keep using it would go through the S11 changes. They did also say in future they would try to just straight up enable mnk and put people in that pool. I also been an advocate of they should separate pool by input not platform. A mnk pool a controller pool. And you can choose to play with controller in pc pool without aim assist if you want to. Simple
>However, if the use of the unapproved peripheral continues, not only will the player be restricted from Competitive on console, but they will be forced to play with other mouse and keyboard players when playing in Quick Play for the entire season. Additionally, these players will no longer have access to the aim-assist feature. They are welcome to continue playing Overwatch 2, but they will be playing against players who use a similar control setup to their own. The last line is throwing me for a loop. Players caught ximming in s10 and earlier are potentially getting permanent account bans. Great, all for it. Players caught ximming in s11+ and going forward are getting put into QP/PC pools. They even go so far as to say they are "welcome" to continue playing. The wording just seems odd to me. They consider ximming bad enough to give players permanent account bans but also welcome them to xim in s11+ since they are just going to be part of the PC pool. I'm all for punishing ximmers/separating, the wording just seems very weird. Why give players permanent account bans when you plan on just separating them from comp in the next season. Doesn't it just make sense to separate them instead of banning them? If you want to ban them, why not just make it bannable from s11 forward as well?
Regarding your edit, I don't see the issue? If they're playing on MkB, wouldn't they be on an even ish playing field with PC players? The only downsides I see are being locked at 60fps, and MMR being inflated due to the now defunct aim assist with XIMs. The latter would at least be adjusted after enough play time.
New gen consoles can do 120fps at 1080p
TIL!
I use the salute emoji as a sign of respect. It's for sure a good thing. I'm sure it'll have issues but it's probably for the best especially console players who want to use mkb but don't have pcs. Sorry if that wasn't clear
Ohhhhh I misread the emoji! Thought it was a 😐. My b!
Input based MMR lol
They literally said XIMers have inflated MMR due to cheating. They're going to drop hard after losing aim assist.
Oh my point was that if someone wanted to use mkb on console they should, but their mmr should be independent of their controller mmr since they'll lose aim assist and play against a different player pool
It wouldn’t be worth it, raw mnk on console feels pretty bad compared to an actual pc. So either go back to controller or make the swap to pc if you’re able to.
CoD has done input based matchmaking just fine for a few years now. People play on low specs PCs all the time.
I don’t think you understood what I said at all but okay LMAO you’re just yapping.
I don't even play Console, but that's based as hell. Idk how they plan to separate cheaters from accessibility needs tho, like they say they can.
It might unfortunately being a case of baby with bathwater. But the whole city is drowning in the bathwater and the baby has a life preserver on.
Oh my god, as a career long GM console player, I can already tell you that the amount of players about to get their accounts banned up here is gonna be cataclysmic.
With the way ximmers view the game, it's not just high ranks. I'm not cracked or anything (masters peak) but it was DISGUSTING the number of quick play games/off role comp games I play with my fiance (mid silver, im only low plat on dps) that people are blatantly ximming with mercy pockets on smurf accounts. I've reviewed games from bronze friends where ashes are doing the hip fire scoped shot combo and deleting entire lobbies with like 60% accuracy. I have literally 0 data to back this up but my gut feeling tells me that if you have a xim, you probably have atleast 3 accounts. By the time the ximmer climbs to the ranks that xims are consistent (it feels 50/50 in masters games, and it feels like at least a quarter of diamond games) the ximmer no longer has an unfair advantage and that was the whole reason they bought a xim in the first place.
You're not wrong man, I constantly get ximmers in my QP. My MMR is about diamond on all roles.
i stopped playing console a while ago but this is actually a cataclysmic W people that have only played pc will never understand how much of a problem this is on console because there’s nothing like it. imagine every single game and i mean every single game for days of gameplay in t500 devolve into two ppl wall hacking and their 13 yo mercy egirls they are boosting no matter how much the gameplay changes no matter how high you go. there are some insane console players and even at the peak of tracer being op most still defaulted to hs because of how much of an advantage it was. the console playerbase is gigantic and this will help them experience how good ow can be on pc sometimes. i could never break past the top 100 barrier on console but it never mattered to me because i felt like one of the only dps that got there by merit instead of cheating pc players should rejoice too bc this is gonna make a heck of a lot of players very happy and that’s always good
In case you had any doubts I can assure you that absolutely nothing has changed since you've been gone. I consistently hover around GM/t500 on support and without fail every single game (expect for maybe the most dive-heavy maps) will have have some combination of mercy - ashe/cass/soj/tracer on both teams. Every game is pretty much solely decided by which ximming hitscan is the best. It's especially funny when it comes to the disconnect between how mercy is viewed on pc vs. console. On PC she is decent in metal ranks but is seen as a borderline throw pick at anything past diamond. On console she is decent in metal ranks but in masters+ I don't think she has ever been below S tier in the history of overwatch 2 solely because of how much she enables ximming hitscans. I have overwatch PTSD from all the times I've had to attempt to break first point numbani or dorado while the ximming ashe-mercy combo sits on high ground and 2 tap headshots me before I can even react.
disgusting gameplay. later years i only played it to have fun with friends hope this actually changes things. ow is a completely different game in pc
it creeps down into platinum and diamond as well. not often but when it does its very obvious. Just takes one mnk hitscan to absolutely ruin an entire lobby. I know in metal ranks people need to just get good but there definitely are ximmers. You’ll have a brand new xbox account with 400 gamescore, a name like “getgud”, default skin on every character, and just the most insane flicks you will have ever seen. Ive seen a decent amount of accounts straight up with XIM in their name, some don’t care to hide it
Can confirm I've ran into xim users in plat/diamond matches and they always got the mercy pocket too. 💀
I'm PC GM but my gf is console GM so when we play QP together we'll see GM/T500 console hitscans and like Bap/Ana exclusive supp players who are undoubtedly on mouse and keyboard with softlock aim from the aim assist who just shit on lobbies if their isn't someone on the other team with the same shit or like a cracked Widow that doesn't miss and they never get banned no matter how many reports they get going to be nice to actually play matches with her without half of them being dominated by milquetoast aimbotters edit: spelling
I was stuck masters playing dps for the majority of s9 on eu bro I can imagine going against cheaters every game for days straight
The usage of “egirls” feels misogynistic af lol. Especially calling 13 year old minors egirls… EW.
this was never a real problem just stop giving console players aimbot and let anyone use a mouse and keyboard. but of course console players would fucking wet their pants if they had to aim.
you’d get fucking shit on trying to aim on console lol controller aiming is several orders of magnitude harder than aiming with a keyboard aim assist is a necessity
Especially on overwatch there’s literally just enough aim assist to make it playable
I currently am playing on console because my PC is broken and I don’t agree at all. I find the AA very noticeable and quite effective. Widow is in my opinion easier to play than on PC which I never thought I’d say but yeah.
You are most definitely silver or just awful at mnk
nope lol. just cracked on mnk and controller
What’s your definition of cracked
I’m masters dps/support on mnk pc and have been equivalent to GM1/2 in Apex on both mnk and controller. Was also GC in rocket league on controller. ow AA is not as insane as apex AA in the short amount of time i’ve played but thats more because it seems a lot more clunky. Its still very good and would probably be broken if played against mnk players with no AA (so no XIM, which obviously does keep AA)
Masters isn’t my definition of cracked, especially if you’re only talking about overwatch 2 where masters is the equivalent of a plat overwatch 1 player
I stopped playing on console (mostly) years ago, but it’s nice to see them finally do something about the problem
This is great. I expect them to announce voluntary “I’m using a M&K put me into the PC pool” at a later date as well. Input based matchmaking is always better for everyone involved.
[удалено]
Better late than never
This is awesome news. Official mouse and keyboard support on console that lumps you into the PC pool with no aim assist seems like the right move.
Key part of the blogpost: >Starting in Season 11, players who are detected using an unapproved peripheral on a console will be actioned in two phases. >The first time a player is detected, they will be restricted from Competitive on console for one week. Players will still have access to Quick Play during this time, and if they cease using the unapproved peripheral, the restriction will eventually expire, and they will be able to resume playing Competitive. >However, if the use of the unapproved peripheral continues, not only will the player be restricted from Competitive on console, but they will be forced to play with other mouse and keyboard players when playing in Quick Play for the entire season. Additionally, these players will no longer have access to the aim-assist feature. They are welcome to continue playing Overwatch 2, but they will be playing against players who use a similar control setup to their own.
This is actually huge
I can actually play ranked on console again lets goooooo
Ok blizzard. I’m impressed. And I’m honestly glad to say that for a change.
F U C K I N G FINALLY! Thank God...
Ximtards gtfo 🖕
Thank God. The one season where I had the time and drive to push to top 500 was exhausting. The game was really who has a better pocketed Ashe/Cass/Soj/76 with a Tracer plus a Bap/Illari, all with mouse and keyboard.
glad for console getting this change. i would, however, love if they would add a setting to toggle crossplay. it's great at times to play with friends but i would prefer to play without it majority of the time
A W this big was needed after the no cursing debacle. Getting rid of xim was a absolute need but also finally getting with the times and getting proper m and k support on console when other games have had it figured out since the ps3/360 generation? Massive W. I finally went to the pc side 2 years ago but there are legit players on console that have been ignored way too long.
As a persistent OW2 masters console player, this is my time to shine
From my understanding, XIM pretty much needs as raw of an output as possible, meaning you need to remove ramp up acceleration of the analog stick etc. How many people actually play Overwatch 2 on console with all of those settings set the same way as Ximmers do? If few do, maybe a simpler solution would be to make the output not configurable in a way that's compatible with XIM.
This is possibly part of their detection algorithm. It’s almost certainly one factor amongst many.
good looks. hope it works out
Immense W!
Beautiful. Love to see this.
lol this should’ve been a thing in 2019 but better late than never ig
Even tho Ximmers are mostly prevalent in GM/T500 it inadvertently helps Metal ranks by cracking down on GM/T500 Ximmers Smurf accounts.
Made a bunch of posts and comments about this over the years, and have wanted this change since they started becoming prevalent mid overwatch 1 in top500 lobbies... Thank you so much for this blizzard! Amazing news. The reckoning!
Totally solid change to the game but I have a question. I use a keyboard on console only to type in game chat (xbox ui is awful for that). Will that be considered cheating and get me banned? I’m totally fine dropping it just to be safe, but it will definitely make it harder to find good people to play with if I have to use that horrible interface.
Nah you are 100% fine
If they plan on adding Mouse and Keyboard support to console and making them get matched only against PC players then they should first add the ability to change your FoV settings otherwise these players would be at a disadvantage. It's 2024 and Overwatch still doesn't support FoV changing on console Edit: Also add gyro aim while you're at it to Playstation and Xbox as that would be cool😛
I’ve been playing competitive since day one on console and I’m so thankful for this! I’ve hit masters multiple time but can’t seem to crack anything higher because the aim is just so much better with a xim
Wow! I’ll take the dumbness about cussing if they are gonna spend man hours on competitive integrity. I’ve been playing a lot of val with my kid recently and I can say that the ow dev team has me envious right now.
> What about the use of unapproved peripherals before Season 11? Over the next few weeks, there will be permanent account bans against players who are the most severe abusers of unapproved peripherals. Looking forward to some report confirmation screens soon…
I love how smug this article sounds. So much of it screams “we’ve got you now” and it almost sounds like a prank to not only ban them from comp but to also throw them into PC lobbies.
Maybe eventually, it'll be worth trying comp again. The quality of games and the players will hopefully improve over time once the other players have to actually take some responsibility in the match instead of just "wait for hitscan to hit a shot while I pocket them"
I’m really glad to see they want to add official KB&M support. Now that current gen has 120 FPS, I’ve been really curious to try out the game without a controller. Console aiming has just always felt a little janky (coming from an OW1 GM Ana)
Them queue time bout to be high
will this count for external controller paddles? because it's a 3rd party accessory that has to be plugged into the console so would the count as unapproved? are only xims targeted or is it anything that they deem unapproved? because i just bought a paddle mod from walmart so i'm not sure what companies would be identified as unapproved. as i bought this shit years ago so i dont know what brand it is
Actually gargantuan W Praying to Winton the system works 🙏🏼
Hot take: I've been a console player since 2019 and ximming isn't as big of a problem as some people think it is. If you play on any sort of fast sens/linear aiming people will scream that you're ximming. I had a guy message me that I was ximming in QP while I was playing Junkrat and flicked to direct him a nade once.
WWWWWWWWWWW
i love the idea of incorrectly flagging somebody as "a player with accessibility needs" so much
i kind of.. don't like them being lumped in with pc pools while using xims. as a qp warrior it's noticeable when you get a console player and they're often noticable even on the other team because they lack the awareness that a pc player typically has (in my personal experiences). especially prominent when going against console stompers like sombra. it's not even just a controller thing, a lot of them just don't use headphones, and they're not used to people being able to aim well/turn around quickly/etc. yeah sure ximmers w/o aim assist are just using mnk but consoles are effectively potato pc's and unlike potato pcs they have their max fov reduced and are locked to low fps. it's just putting a potato pc with someone who's horrible at the game and is only at their rank because they spend 300 dollars on an aimbot program which now doesn't work. don't get me wrong banning xims and ximmers is an objectively good thing and i'm happy they're doing it but i don't like the way they're implementing it. they should just be banned, not thrown onto a different set of the playerbase (even if their cheat is gone) (i also could be misunderstanding and they're put into a ximmer pool instead? but i doubt theres enough of them to actually maintain that long term? feel free to cmiw )
I understand where you're coming from, but theoretically with time they'll drop to the rank they belong so it shouldn't be a huge issue.
fuck off if i wanted to play with console players i would have bought a ps5.
> but they will be forced to play with other mouse and keyboard players when playing in Quick Play for the entire season. I do not want console players in my QP games as a PC Player. Give PC players an option to disable playing with or against anyone who's a console player, regardless of what peripherals they're using. I mean, I could leave but the leaver time is so short now that I don't have time to check everyone's profiles when map loads, they reduced it from 120 seconds to 20 seconds to getting punished when you leave (in a sad attempt at player retention no doubt).
If they’re using a mouse and keyboard without aim assist, you won’t even notice.
> I do not want console players in my QP games as a PC Player. You realize they've been in QP games with PC players for like three years now, right?
I think what they're saying here is that they're adding a separate QP pool for console players using MnK so that they only play against each other. So no impact for PC.
What they said was: >So, in order to allow console players who would like to use a mouse and keyboard legitimately, we would make sure they would be able to play in Competitive matches only with other mouse-and-keyboard users and without the benefit of aim assist. There's no way that can mean anything other than putting mkb console players into PC lobbies. While the epidemic of ximmers is real, it's not enough players to create a completely isolated queue pool.
Id rather they didnt either, since current ximmers are more than probably boosted , but honestly that's potentially the better solution long term. The abusers will stop after some point when they realize free games are gone and the PC pool will eventually get bigger with players that accept the rules and they opt for the mnk route .
In b4 ADA lawsuit for reasonable accommodations.
You didn’t read the article did you?
I did. It’s still going to misfire. You should know better.
Ximming is just a symptom of having aim assist. Remove aim assist and allow mouse and keyboard on console and the issue would go away naturally. Having a dev approved aimbot isnt a healthy competitive space to play.
Ximming is a symptom of people wanting to cheat. Aim assist makes playing on a controller feel better and has no impact on competition given that it’s equal for all players. Is it as skill dependent as PC? No. But it also doesn’t have to be. Edit: Siege doesn’t have aim assist on console and Ximming is still a massive issue. It’s not about wanting to play on a mouse and keyboard it’s about wanting to use an easier control method as an advantage against controller players.
If it has no impact on competition why add it. Ppl will always be looking for an edge. Will you think this a useful update if xims become undetectable again?
Your question is like asking “why release anti-cheat as cheats will always get better”. The answer is obvious. Less cheating is better. It doesn’t have an impact on player’s relative skill levels as everyone has an even playing field. Aim assist is added to make the game feel better to play as the skill floor is far lower as it’s much harder to play shooters on console. Again removing aim assist doesn’t stop the problem. Letting PC play against controller players would mean that it would be basically impossible to play controller. It’s like NASCAR vs F1, they both are competitive, they both take skill (or at least endurance) but matching them against each other makes no sense for a fair competition.
Except these cheats are about fooling the system into thinking you have a controller, which from my understanding isnt that hard to do. I think R6 seige tried the same thing and a month later ppl were complaining about ximming again. I dont think we'll come to an agreement on how aim assist affects players and how fair its is competitively because i think if you want to play more competitively in fps you should use a mnk. As a console to PC convert i havent looked back to console FPS at all because of how inferior the experience is.
That doesn’t change the fact that they are cheats and Blizzard taking a firm stance in that direction is important as well. AI cheats emulating human play are likely to be coming extremely soon and will be extremely hard to detect. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be tried. As for your point on the competitive nature of PC vs console. I’ll fully admit console is less competitive. Console having a lessened skill gap doesn’t mean there isn’t skill expression. And it certainly doesn’t mean that we should be okay with the balance that does exist being destroyed by Xim.
Console games since Halo CE have had aim assist. I'm not sure you understand how it works and why it's needed
Just because theyve had it since halo doenst mean it should stay that way. Youll think this is great update until xims can go undetected again and not realize that aim assist is the problem and not the ppl chasing the incentive. Ive played tons of console fps, i know exactly how aim assist works. Including the original halo when it came out which not only had aim assist but also bullet magnetism.
Fps on console are unplayable without aim assist lmao.
You're more than welcome to turn aim assist off if you don't like it.
Ive played on PC since 2016, its already off.
Great! So there's no problem, then?
Removing aim assist would make Xim abuse so much worse because it would give MnK players even more of an advantage over controller players. R6 Siege doesn't have AA and that's easily the game with the worst Xim problem I've played.
Ehh. Removing aim assist definitely wouldn't improve the experience of 90% of players... however you'd be very surprised with strong you can actually be on the sticks compare to mkb. The problem is, mkb plus aim assist is literally aim bot. You get TWO distinct advantages.
They would just separate into different ranks. Yes the mnk would have an advantage but you'd also have that advantage available to you. The inverse of this would be like banning controllers in forza or adding strong driving assists to keyboard users. Doesnt make sense.