Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller and govt producer Jared Neuss introduced Tuesday in a Twitch stream {that a} cornerstone of the sport’s promised story mode, Hero Missions, had been canceled. The sport’s fanbase hasn’t taken too kindly to the information, which is why on Friday, Keller took to the Overwatch Blog to supply a extra in-depth clarification behind the choice.
In 2019, the Overwatch 2 workforce introduced upcoming PvE content material within the type of Story Missions and Hero Missions (or “Hero Mode”). Keller reiterated Friday that whereas growth on the latter mode has stopped, the previous continues to be set to return to Overwatch 2 later this yr. “The work completed right here is superb, leaps and bounds above what we’ve constructed for PvE beforehand in our sport, and I can’t look ahead to our gamers to get their palms on them,” Keller mentioned. “We’ll be sharing extra particulars there within the coming weeks.”
In regards to the cancellation of Overwatch 2’s Hero Missions, which might have allowed gamers to improve particular person heroes by means of expertise bushes in what was speculated to be a deeply replayable PvE model of the sport, Keller goes into the historical past of Overwatch as a sport born out of the cancellation of an MMO Blizzard was creating, codenamed Venture Titan. The plan, Keller says, was to maintain constructing on Overwatch to make it one thing larger — not fairly Titan-sized, however absolutely featured.
“After we launched Overwatch in 2016, we shortly began speaking about what that subsequent iteration might be,” Keller mentioned. “Trying again at that second, it’s now apparent that we weren’t as centered as we must always have been on a sport that was a runaway hit. As an alternative, we stayed centered on a plan that was years outdated. Work started on the PvE portion of the sport and we steadily continued shifting increasingly of the workforce to work on these options.
“Issues not often go as deliberate in sport growth. We struggled to search out our footing with the Hero Mission expertise early on. Scope grew. We had been making an attempt to do too many issues directly and we misplaced focus. The workforce constructed some actually nice issues, together with hero skills, new enemy models and early variations of missions, however we had been by no means in a position to convey collectively all the parts wanted to ship a elegant, cohesive expertise.”
After a lot inside deliberation, the workforce determined to cancel Overwatch 2’s Hero Missions — a call Keller acknowledged would upset lots of the sport’s gamers. “This has been exhausting for us, however because the director on this challenge, I’ve to do my finest to make choices that put the sport and the group first, even when these choices are disappointing,” Keller mentioned. “On this case, I had hassle pivoting away from a imaginative and prescient that simply wasn’t working. And for that I wish to apologize to our gamers and to our workforce. I’m sorry.”
Keller closes out the put up by stating the Overwatch 2 workforce continues to be dedicated to delivering Story Missions, new co-op content material, and new tales advised each inside and out of doors of the sport itself. Keller’s ultimate word compares this level in Overwatch 2’s growth to that of Venture Titan, representing “a second of metamorphosis” for the workforce and the challenge. Added Keller, “That is one other second of change. And the way forward for Overwatch will likely be born out of it.”
“We’re focusing our efforts and our ardour into making this sport an ever-evolving expertise,” Keller mentioned. “We’re nonetheless dedicated to constructing lots of the parts we talked about at BlizzCon 2019, together with the Story Missions that delve into the following chapter of the Overwatch universe, new varieties of co-op content material we haven’t but shared, and new tales that we’re planning to inform each out and in of the sport. We’re enthusiastic about this course and we will’t wait so that you can lastly get to expertise what we’ve been constructing.”