Overwatch 2 was announced in 2019 and alongside it was a much-wanted PvE mode for the hero shooter. Now, less than a year since it was launched, that PvE mode has been canceled.
Announced today via a Twitch stream (which is also available on YouTube), executive producer Jaren Neuss explained why the highly anticipated promised game mode would not be released after all. Blizzard has shown some PvE gameplay in the past, but it seems the team came to the realization that it would not be up to the quality the studio demands of its releases.
"Development on the PvE experience has not really hasn't made the progress that we have hoped. "
Neuss went on to say that while the team has built "a bunch of amazing content," with "awesome missions," it didn't quite meet the "Blizzard-quality experience" the team is aiming for.
"Do we continue to pour all that effort into PvE, hoping we can land it at some point in the future, or do we stick with this set of values that we have aligned on and focus on the live game and focus on serving all of you? With everything we have learned about what it takes to operate this game at the level that you deserve, it's clear that we can't deliver on that original vision for PvE that was shown in 2019. What that means is that we won't be delivering that dedicated hero mode with talent trees, that long-term talent power progression."
ICYMI: Game Director @aaronkellerOW & Executive Producer @OhReallyJared took a peek into the future of #Overwatch2 ??Watch this segment for the latest on PvE and everything else we have planned in 2023 ??? https://t.co/BBHZ6CdAyv pic.twitter.com/cSApkshOW9
— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) May 16, 2023
While the hero mode has been scrapped entirely, Overwatch 2's team doesn't seem to be giving up on PvE wholecloth, with story missions announced as part of its upcoming roadmap. However, one of the major talking points and draws for Overwatch 2 was this hero mode. It was why the original game pretty much went into a holding pattern for the next three years, seeing development pour into Overwatch 2.
Naturally, fans looking forward to the mode were upset when the sequel launched in 2022 without the PvE component, with Blizzard stating it would be coming in 2023. Now after today's announcement, it won't be happening either.
In an interview with GameSpot today alongside the announcement, game director Aaron Keller pushed back against the outlet's Tamoor Hussain when talking about not doing PvE anymore:
"I think I would characterize it slightly differently, which is we are doing part of what the team had set out to do, but not the entirety of what was discussed back at BlizzCon 2019. So the real focus is on the story missions and that experience as opposed to the more open-ended hero mode and that stuff."
Hussain addressed the frustration that would be coming from players in the interview, which Keller points to the fact that Overwatch 2 would still be seeing a lot coming in the future, including PvE content using the tech and tools the team has built over the last few years.
"We've talked a lot in the past about Overwatch 2 and how different it is from the original game, even just being free-to-play and swapping to a 5v5 team format and all the new content that we've developed for it. To me that's the biggest change that we're looking at here; it's not just that we have some of the same Heroes in the game. It's the way that we're writing the game and how we're looking at the game going forward. I really hope that the roadmap that we just released is something that illustrates that to players."
Naturally, Reddit is not happy, and I can imagine many fans eager for the PvE hero mode promised back at BlizzCon 2019 are today. Reddit posts have ranged from showing that the justification for the "2" in Overwatch was for this PvE mode, while others are pointing to the years of no real content drops just for more cosmetics and the same gameplay.
