Overwatch 2 PVE Content Abandoned After Four Years of False Promises

Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller and executive producer Jared Neuss made an announcement that the game will not be receiving its much-anticipated player-versus-environment (PvE) content that kept fans waiting for years. The Hero Missions were first announced back in 2019 by former game director Jeff Kaplan and it was the biggest reason why Overwatch 2 was announced in the first place, with fans expecting the franchise to cater to both its competitive playerbase as well as fans who wanted a co-op experience.

What even is the point of Overwatch 2?

Fans stopped receiving content in the original Overwatch for three years, since most of the development resources were diverted to the creation of Overwatch 2. Fans expected something along the lines of Destiny 2 or Borderlands games, where players could experience co-op content that would build upon the game’s polished gameplay mechanics and promising lore.

Eventually, Blizzard Entertainment decided to release Overwatch 2’s multiplayer component only in October 2022. The game moved from a $40 USD title to a free-to-play model with a battle pass system and cosmetics store. 

The franchise has dabbled with PvE content in the past with events like Retribution, Storm Rising, Junkenstein’s Revenge and Uprising. However, the replayability factor of the missions was not very high after you unlocked all achievements or rewards.

Hero Missions in Overwatch 2 sought to introduce highly replayable story missions but we will not be receiving it due to development constraints. Blizzard Entertainment is now focused on the multiplayer side of things.

In an interview with GameSpot, Blizzard Entertainment revealed, “And as we started to get further and further into it — obviously our players could realize that we were pulling focus away from the live game — but it just didn’t look like there was a definitive end date in sight where we would finally be able to put that stamp on [it], or that end date was years away and it no longer felt like we could be doing that to our players, or we could be doing that to the live game that we were running.” 

Overwatch players who enjoyed multiplayer content were already irked by the fact that the original title did not receive updates for years and now PvE fans will also be disappointed. Only time will tell if the franchise can retain its hype amidst the highly disappointing news.