Overwatch 2 text chat bug can make nonrefundable skin purchases

By Cristina Alexander Published October 7, 2022

Overwatch 2’s rocky post-launch saga continues as the game is suffering from a bug that randomly purchases skins from the in-game shop without permission from players while they’re using the chat.

As reported by Kotaku, some players pointed out the auto-purchasing bug to Blizzard after the game’s tumultuous launch on Tuesday. The issue appeared to gain more traction Thursday evening when Reddit user Dracyoshi made a post in the Overwatch subreddit detailing their experience of buying the Junker Queen skin without meaning to because they typed text chat in the Hero Gallery.

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“On the day that Overwatch 2 launched I was chatting with some friends while browsing the hero gallery when the game unexpectedly began unlocking Junker Queen’s Plutonium skin,” Dracyoshi said. “I was typing a message in the chat and before I could react and cancel the purchase it already went through and bought the skin for me. It appears to have been caused by a bug where text typed into the chat is occasionally misinterpreted by the game [as] an input for navigating the menu. And unfortunately unlocking a skin only takes two presses of the spacebar, something that can happen in a split second when you’re pressing it dozens of times per sentence.”

The Plutonium skin is worth 300 Legacy Credits, which is in-game currency given to original Overwatch players. Legacy coins cannot be obtained in Overwatch 2 if it’s your first time playing the series, and once you use them, you can’t get them back. Digital Trends reached out to Dracyoshi for more details on Blizzard’s response concerning the bug. They said they got a response on the support ticket, but weren’t issued any refunds. However, they said they were relieved it didn’t use Overwatch Coins they spent actual money on.

The auto-purchasing bug is the latest in a series of mishaps for Overwatch 2, which has seen two DDoS attacks, long queues of players trying to log into the game’s servers only to get kicked out after unlocking certain achievements, and players not meeting SMS Protect requirements to play the game, which Blizzard fixed following fan pushback. When Blizzard will patch out the auto-purchasing bug or offer refunds to those affected by it is unknown.

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Cristina Alexander

Gaming/Mobile Writer

Cristina Alexander is a gaming and mobile writer at Digital Trends. She blends fair coverage of games industry topics that…

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