Overwatch 2 Director Aaron Keller took to the official Overwatch blog to apologize for - and explain why - the promised PvE Hero Mode in the hero shooter was canceled.
Earlier this week, the Overwatch team announced that the much anticipated - and the main reason for Overwatch 2's existence - Hero Mode would not be released after all, doing away with the majority of the planned PvE content players looked forward to. The decision was stated to be because the team could not get the mode up to the Blizzard-level quality the team expects of a shipped product, and instead was doubling down on the live service version of the hero shooter.
Fans, understandably, were upset, with many pointing out on Reddit that the promised PvE Hero Mode was much of the justification the team used for an Overwatch sequel, and with it now axed fans were left fuming. Today in a blog post, Overwatch 2 Game Director Aaron Keller explained the why and apologized for letting fans down.
One thing Keller makes clear at the start is that while the Hero Mode is being canceled, PvE content itself isn't. Overwatch 2 will still feature linear narrative stories that give insight into the world building behind the hero shooter.
"Story Missions tell a linear narrative about the heroes of Overwatch reuniting and battling the new Null Sector threat, pushing the story of Overwatch forward for the first time since our original game released. These missions take place on huge maps with new enemies and new cinematics. "
Overwatch, and by extension, Overwatch 2, rose from the ashes of the failed MMO project, Project Titan. It seems, according to Keller, that the team always intended to revisit the original MMO-concept origins of Overwatch.
"To give you some context for this change, I'd like to talk about the past and the origins of Team 4. The Overwatch team was founded in the wake of a [canceled] game at Blizzard called Project Titan. That game had many facets, but at its heart, it was an FPS MMO. The Overwatch team, especially at its inception, considered itself an MMO development team. As we transitioned away from that original concept and started creating Overwatch, we included plans to one day return to that scope. We had a crawl, walk, run plan. Overwatch was the crawl, a dedicated version of PvE was the walk, and an MMO was the run. It was built into the DNA of the team early on, and some of us considered that final game a true realization of the original vision of Project Titan."
Keller continues, stating that the desire to revisit that original concept might have caused a lack of focus on the hero shooter that took off in 2016, stating that the team quickly turned to "what the next iteration could be." Instead of focusing on the budding hero shooter that took the internet by storm, Overwatch's development team instead was more focused on "a plan that was years old."
Keller states that the team "struggled" to find their "footing with the Hero Mission" experience. Despite building many good things, nothing was ever able to bind it all together in an experience that could be shipped.
As a result, Keller says the team was "trying too many things at once" and lost focus. As a result of trying to realize this PvE vision that seemingly brought the team closer to the FPS MMO roots of Overwatch, it was pulling resources from the live game.
"We had announced something audacious. Our players had high expectations for it, but we no longer felt like we could deliver it. We needed to make an incredibly difficult decision, one we knew would disappoint our players, the team, and everyone looking forward to Hero Missions. The Overwatch team understands this deeply - this represented years of work and emotional investment. They are wonderful, incredibly talented people and truly have a passion for our game and the work that they do."
One of the other criticisms levied at the Overwatch 2 team was the timing of the announcement, especially as players were led to believe this Hero Mode would be coming out, well, around now. Keller simply states the team was unable to make all their plans come together without continually taking away from the development of the live game players were enjoying now.
"This has been hard for us, but as the director on this project, I have to do my best to make decisions that put the game and the community first, even when those decisions are disappointing. In this case, I had trouble pivoting away from a vision that just wasn’t working. And for that I would like to apologize to our players and to our team. I’m sorry."
You can check out the full blogpost over on the Overwatch 2 website.
