Last week Overwatch 2 unveiled that the PvE-component of the game will be cut drastically. Now, Game Director Aaron Keller is here with a blog post reflecting on the future of the game.
The developer starts the message by admitting that it had been an emotional week for the world of Overwatch. The fans’ discussions had been about PvE-mode being cancelled outright, but the Game Director believes it is not an accurate take. When OW2 was announced in 2019, the plan had been to focus PvE side around Story Missions and Hero Missions:
- Story Missions would offer fast-paced co-op gameplay as well as story, cinematics and cutscenes. They would tell a linear narrative about the heroes of Overwatch reuniting and battling the new Null Sector threat;
- Hero Missions encompassed an in-development game mode that allowed players to upgrade individual heroes through talent trees, providing a deeply replayable version of PvE in Overwatch 2.
Players will start getting their hands on the Story Missions with Season 6. The developers plan to share more details in the coming weeks. However, Hero Missions is the mode that OW2 will no longer be moving forward with.
“Things rarely go as planned in game development. We struggled to find our footing with the Hero Mission experience early on. Scope grew. We were trying to do too many things at once and we lost focus. The team built some really great things, including hero talents, new enemy units and early versions of missions, but we were never able to bring together all of the elements needed to ship a polished, cohesive experience.”
Check out the blog post to see in-depth discussion of why the team decided to cut the Hero Mode.
