The death of Overwatch 2 PvE is hitting players hard after years of waiting: "Overwatch 1 died for this?"
Overwatch 2's long-awaited PvE mode is dead, and after holding out hope for years while playing a sequel that's sometimes felt at odds with the "2" on its box, a lot of players are feeling down.
Blizzard will still add some sort of PvE component to Overwatch 2, but the depth and replayability that helped many fans come to terms with leaving Overwatch 1 behind – skill trees, a hero mode, and more – has been gutted. Executive producer Jared Neuss said in a dev stream that "those things just aren't in our plans anymore" because "it's clear that we can't deliver on that original vision for PvE."
As you'd expect – and as Blizzard tacitly acknowledged when it broke the bad news – the Overwatch 2 community is caught between let down and meltdown as years of anticipation boil over.
One sentiment I've already seen multiple times is the idea that "Overwatch 1 died for this," which gets to a core issue with this cancellation. Bespoke PvE was not pitched as a minor feature of Overwatch 2; it was a foundational element of the game which delayed the release of other content. It was repeatedly put off until later, and now that later has arrived, the bulk of the content that was revealed has been scrapped. PvE is still coming, but in a clearly trimmed-down form, and players are mourning all the lost time (not entirely unlike the developers undoubtedly mourning all the work that's now been shelved).
in loving memory of Overwatch 2's PVE pic.twitter.com/qWlZ5wPvhnMay 16, 2023
This news has also only reignited and intensified debates over why Overwatch 2 had to be a standalone sequel rather than a big update.
"So you're telling me we went through years of no content just for 5v5 and Push?!" asks Redditor soverain (opens in new tab) in
Read more on gamesradar.com
