A new interview has shed some light on what’s happening over at Overwatch 2 as far as its previously-announced PvE mode is concerned. The game announced that it would be implementing a dedicated PvE story mode into the hero shooter last year. However, it’s all been pretty quiet since then in terms of when players can expect to see the campaign content roll out.
Although there’s still nothing concrete in terms of a launch date for the PvE content, Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller has given the community a bit more insight into how the mode’s development is going. It sounds as though the rollout of the game’s co-op campaign will happen gradually, although it should stay on course to happen later this year.
Speaking to NME, as spotted in PCGamesN, Keller explains that the development team are still working out the best way to release the single-player content in Overwatch 2 after having to push back the rollout of the PvE mode in the first place. “We found ourselves in a position where we couldn’t release all of the content that we were building for Overwatch 2 until the campaign was finished,” Keller explains, adding that the general development of the singleplayer campaign was “going slower than we wanted it to.” This meant that the PvE element of Overwatch 2 ended up being removed from the game’s main release, while the team at Blizzard finalized the mode’s overall gameplay.
“We couldn’t release all of the content that we were building for Overwatch 2 until the campaign was finished,” Keller adds, continuing that “we found ourselves saying ‘we’re going to keep withholding content from our players so we can release everything together with our original strategy – the campaign – or we’re going to have to change the way that we think about releasing the game.”
Due to this, the PvE campaign will make its appearance in a gradual rollout process that will begin at the later end of this year. Keller explains that the single-player content will give players a chance to explore the “big, overarching narrative” of Overwatch 2, with more options for character and worldbuilding to play a part in the game beyond its multiplayer baseline. “We can go into a lot more depth with not just the characters in the universe,” Keller says, “but all of the big events that are happening inside of it.”
The PvE mode of Overwatch 2 should be a big hit with players who have put a lot of time and investment into their main characters. However, time will tell as to how well it’s received by the Overwatch 2 community when it does eventually make its way into the game.
Overwatch 2 is available free-to-play now on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC.
