to update [Thu 18th May, 2023 03:05 BST]:
Overwatch 2 executive producer Jared News has it now He responded to the community backlash in a series of tweets, stressing that canceling the PvE Hero mode was not an easy decision and was equally difficult for the development team. A follow-up blog will provide more context on what’s next for the “new stories” from Overwatch.
The clarification I wanted to make is that while we’ve made the decision to cut back on Hero Mode + Talents, we’ve got a lot of great PvE content coming out this year. Big story missions, new cinematics, co-op events, and single-player Hero mastery missions are all on the way. I’d also like to I admit today was a challenging day for many of us in the Overwatch community – players and developers alike. We understand that today’s news about the scope of PvE is frustrating. We at the OW leadership team didn’t take the decision lightly.
“We love the world of Overwatch and we have so many new stories to tell. Moving in this direction gives us confidence that we can tell those stories, albeit in a different way than we were originally going to talk about. The next Take Director blog comes out on Friday with more context.”
Neuss also addressed speculation about changes to PvE range due to Blizzard’s “back to office” policy And the company is losing talent – noting how there were already challenges before that:
I’ve seen speculation that changes to PvE scope on Overwatch 2 are related to Blizzard’s RTO policy. For the record, that’s not true. Managing PvE and PvP development simultaneously has been a team challenge for years. It’s a less exciting title but it’s true.
“We’ll go into a little more historical detail in the next Director’s article. I hope the additional context sheds some light on why we made this decision.”
Mike Ybarra, President of Blizzard Entertainment, had the following words of support for the Overwatch team:
“I will always support the decisions our team makes and the many elements they balance as they do so. It’s not easy to change direction – and we will learn from setting such early expectations. I’m proud of what the Overwatch team continues to do and I know the ambition remains high to deliver great player experiences” .
creative [Wed 17th May, 2023 02:35 BST]:
The Overwatch 2 development team at Blizzard today announced the cancellation of the long-awaited PvE Hero Mode.
While there are still PvE elements to go forward, the main mode that the company promised when it announced the sequel to the popular team-based hero game has been canceled. This particular mod was originally the reason behind the release of Overwatch 2.
Overwatch 2 executive producer Jared News explained what led to this decision in a live stream on Twitch – explaining how the PvE experience “wasn’t really” the progression the team hoped it would and the effort required to ship a “Blizzard-quality experience” would be huge, with No end date in sight.
With everything we’ve learned about what it takes to run this game at the level it deserves, it’s clear we can’t achieve that original vision for PvE that was demonstrated in 2019. What that means is that we won’t introduce a custom hero mode with talent trees, and progression. “The power of talent in the long term. Those things are not in our plans anymore. We know this is going to be disappointing to a lot of you and that’s why we wanted to make it happen before we talk about the roadmap.”
Neuss went on to mention how difficult it was for the team to come to terms with this decision, as many members gave their “heart and soul” to the now-canceled situation. Talk to GamespotHowever, Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller mentioned how the team was “still committed to PvE” but was doing it in a different way than he originally talked about.
Here’s what the roadmap now looks like for Overwatch 2, which includes new story-based missions to play through:
How do you feel about the cancellation of PvE Hero Mode? Have you been looking forward to this? Comment below.