2019: Blizzard announces Overwatch 2 a sequel to his hero shooter, especially this time a right campaign should offer. Four years later there is nothing left of this one, because the development has been discontinued.
Although Overwatch 2 was released last year, the one that was originally planned was missing PvE campaign that should also be playable cooperatively, every track. Blizzard promised at the time that this Content will be submitted at a later date – but nothing will come of it. As the responsible Game Director Aaron Keller and Executive Producer Jared Neuss now officially announced.
Overwatch 2: Story missions instead of a big PvE campaign
When Overwatch 2 was announced, Blizzard still had big plans for the campaign: the hero characters should be specially adapted, they should be able to be leveled up and a stringent narrative was promised. That was the essence of the campaign big selling point of the sequelwhich is no longer coming.
Instead, according to von Keller and Neuss in a video, Overwatch 2 will be provided with PvE content elsewhere. Among other things, in future seasons story missions be implemented, but at first glance they sound a bit like the cooperative events from the predecessor. However, the original idea of the PvE campaign with the hero mode will no longer be delivered: “We will make this hero mode with talent trees and the long-term progression … these things are no longer in our plans.”
The decision to drastically reduce the PvE part was apparently made some time ago. In an interview with Gamespot’s English-speaking colleagues, von Keller said that even before Overwatch 2 was released, they realized that “you couldn’t build this other game.” Finally, at the end of last year, it was determined “that we would focus all of our live game efforts and all of our PvE efforts on this new story arc that we will introduce in Season 6.”
Decision in favor of the multiplayer mode
As Keller and Neuss continue to explain in the interview, the idea of a large PvE campaign was basically overdone, since the Overwatch 2 multiplayer mode also wants to be provided with new content at the same time. “I think the scope of the heroic missions was really, really big, and what it took to make them happen would have been quite a significant, tremendous accomplishment,” says Keller. Because of this, they decided to put resources into the live game rather than a PvE campaign, which may be years away.
When asked how Overwatch 2 is now Status as a sequel justified, Keller refers to the big changes in the multiplayer area: the change to a 5vs5 format, the switch to Free2Play, as well as some technical changes that have taken place in the background. In addition, you now have a solid plan for the future of the shooter.
In addition, one would not move away from PvE content entirely, since the story missions already mentioned will be introduced from Season 6. “So I hope players can see that we’re still committed to PvE and that we’re doing more to the storyline than we’ve ever done before. We’re just doing it in a different way than we are originally planned,” says Keller.
Fans are disappointed
The news of the discontinued PvE campaign is not well received by the fans. Many express their disappointment in the comments below the video, on Reddit or on social networks.
For example, Reddit user VanClyded writes, “All those trailers that showed off PvE, hero customization and more of the stuff they’ve posted now. I can’t believe they all hyped it up. The Battle Passes must be selling really well. ”
Meanwhile, on Twitter, Thewhat89 sums it up as follows:
You know the PvE story campaign in Overwatch 2, y’know the thing that justified the 2 at the end of the name? With replayable missions, skill trees for each hero, and long term progression.
Blizzard scrapped it and now it’s tied to the battle pass.
It’s actually fucking over. pic.twitter.com/4SOOLNnERm
— Thewhat (@Thewhat89) May 16, 2023
Others, in turn, rely on adapted memes to vent their disappointment. The predominant tenor? Blizzard didn’t do themselves any favors with the deletion.
Aaron revealing what Overwatch 2 actually is pic.twitter.com/DkIz2E3XPu
— coriscaa (@coriscaa) May 16, 2023
Although knew Overwatch 2 in our test convincing even without a campaign, but even then we criticized the missing PvE part of the hero shooter. The fact that this is not coming at all should hardly help the success.
