Overwatch was a huge success. This hero-based competitive FPS had plenty of fans logging into the game regularly. So when a sequel was announced, fans were intrigued to see what the developers were planning to do with this franchise. One of the big elements that might have excited some fans was the inclusion of a PvE campaign storyline. This would add plenty of interesting lore and even further tweak the hero characters.
In particular, it seems that players could further buff characters a bit as they progressed through the game. So if you were interested in more storylines being featured and likely some more insight into the hero characters you played, Overwatch 2 might have been an instant purchase. However, now that the game has been out for a little while, the developers are revealing the game’s initial storyline campaign elements and tweaks you would have been able to make for your hero is no longer in the works.
Thanks to a report from Gamespot, we’re finding that the development team opted to focus more on the live service aspect of the game. Aaron Keller, the game director for Overwatch 2, stated that this was a process to decide on killing off their initial plans. Keller noted that there was a large portion of their team working on the PvE side of things but felt that this made it hard to bring out content as developers were finding years to go by before a hero launched.
….as we were running up to launching Overwatch 2, we realized that we could not build that other game. We couldn’t save up all of that content over the course of what was looking to be at least the next several years to finish it, and by doing that, pulling more and more resources away from the people that were all playing our game and all the people that would be playing Overwatch 2. So we made a decision later last year that we would focus all of our efforts on the live running game and all of our PvE efforts on this new story arc that we’re launching in Season 6. And then on top of that, to keep all of our PvE efforts, all of our co-op efforts, invested in our seasonal releases rather than that one big boxed release.
Aaron Keller – Gamespot
Fortunately, it’s not an entire scrap, as we’re finding out that the team made a decision to include a new story arc within Season 6. So you can expect story missions within that season, and that could continue onward in the future. Of course, we have a bit of time before we even get to Season 6. This news might not be something fans were all that keen on hearing, but at the very least, we can drop the expectations of that promised Overwatch 2 experience when it was initially revealed to the public.
Currently, Overwatch 2 is a free-to-play title that can be enjoyed on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC platforms. We even have a Before You Buy video coverage of the game when it initially became available. However, it might not represent the game as it stands today.
