It has previously been mentioned by Blizzard that they were planning to balance the console and PC versions of their game Overwatch separately to avoid accusations of one platform ‘ruining’ it for the other platform. Now the first change in this manner is being made, with an incoming patch set to nerf the damage of Torbjörn’s turret.

Comparing the win rates for Torbjörn, they come in as 59.6% for PC but 68% for consoles. While that doesn’t seem like a big markup, you have to remember just how popular Overwatch is. During its first full release week players totalled up 119 million hours of play across all platforms, and many, many copies have sold. Heck, even as I write this someone else across the room is currently playing the game – 10% is a fairly large percentage in this context.

Game director for Overwatch Jeff Kaplan spoke about the upcoming nerf patch on a Reddit topic saying “In an upcoming patch, we will reduce the damage done by Torbjörn’s turret by 30% on Xbox One and PS4. PC will remain unchanged.”

The patch should be coming sometime towards the end of the month once it clears certification and is just the first step on the plan to balance each game separately.

Separate balancing might sound like a lot of unnecessary work for Blizzard but I’m in favour of it. Remember, PC gamers have more choice of input devices while console players usually only have use of their game controllers. As well, the way you will play games on each platform also varies, with console users having less distractions than a PC player who might also be connected into a Discord buzzing with messages or their Skype. Separate balancing for each version therefore makes sense because each platform is bound to have their own little quirks that could make a hero overbalanced on one platform but not the other. If nothing else, it’s nice to see Blizzard taking a chance by trying something a little bit different with one of their games.