As we reported earlier on in the week the plans for PvE Hero Missions in Overwatch 2‘s future have been canceled. As was reported by Gamespot, the Overwatch 2 development team had taken the decision to focus more on the live service portions of the game as it seems the Hero Missions appeared to be diverting too many resources away from the current iteration of the game.
….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 – Game Director on Overwatch 2
However, today Keller has taken to an Overwatch blog post to again discuss the reasons behind the modes cancellation and to reassure players that not all PvE content has been cut from the game as he noted that “this week has been about how we’re canceling PvE outright, which isn’t accurate.”
In the blog post, Keller outlined that Overwatch 2‘s Story Missions would still be going ahead and would offer a ” focus on fast-paced, co-op gameplay, as well as story, cinematics, and cutscenes that expand the world of Overwatch.” These missions are set to take place on huge maps and introduce brand-new enemies and cinematics to the game. The Story Missions are set to be rolled out with the launch of Season 6.
Similar to what was noted in the Gamespot interview Keller again noted in greater detail that the team’s ambition was just too big to realistically dedicate the time necessary to each facet of Overwatch 2.
As those plans grew, we tried to find ways to make all of our ambitions fit together in a plan that we believed in. We couldn’t. And we also knew that we couldn’t go back to pulling people away from the live game in service of that original vision again. So, we made the difficult decision to cut Hero Missions and started planning for the future.
Aaron Keller – Game Director on Overwatch 2
