Nope, it’s not just you. The most recent Overwatch update may have brought this year’s Summer Games event with new skins, voice lines and other cosmetics to earn, but it also brought some frame rate issues causing major stuttering problems and ruining the game for a lot of players on all platforms. Blizzard has acknowledged the issues and is working on a fix for them, but there is currently no ETA on when that fix will be going live.
The Overwatch frame rate issue seems to stem from the chat box, with frames dropping anytime the game updates with a new message. This includes voice lines, emotes, and even connect/disconnect messages for players. Anything that is communicated to the player through the chat box is causing frames to drop out. For PC players at least, there’s an easy workaround by hiding the chat box, but console players aren’t so lucky. With console players frequently using quick chat messages like “Hello” and “Thanks” to communicate with teammates, games can stutter quite a bit, dropping frames to a very noticeable extent every time a new message pops up in the corner. Some players have figured this out and have stopped using quick chat messages, while others can use the issue to troll and grief their own teammates.
Replying to a post on Reddit regarding the PC workaround, Lead Software Engineer Bill Warnecke said “Hey everyone, we’re aware of the reports for this and we’re actively working on it now. Sorry for the disruption, we’ll work to get a fix out with urgency, though I don’t have a specific ETA yet.” Until the fix is available, players who want to participate in this year’s Summer Games event with all new weekly challenges for skins will just need to deal with the frame drops and stuttering issues. If you’re a courteous player, you’ll avoid doing anything that makes text appear in the chat box.
Summer Games (and frame issues) may be live right now, but it’s going to be a while before you get your hands on the next hero in the game. Blizzard announced that it’s still a ways off. Blizzard is still at work adding really cool skins though, so some of your favorite characters can get unexpected and crazy looks, even outside of the game’s normal events.
Have you run into any Overwatch frame drops with the new update yet? Is it impacting yoru enjoyment of this year’s Summer Games event? Let us know in the comments.
