Overwatch 2 was initially billed as a refresh on the series, promising to focus on the one thing the game had going for it in a growing sea of live service games, the characters. Part of this was a PvE mode that would focus on some of the lore, diving deeper into character-specific narratives.
This was to be titled Hero Mode and it was scrapped last year after the game had already gone through extensive struggles since the launch of Overwatch 2 acted as a bigger update that completely erased the game the first game. There were still PvE modes added to the game for a premium price but only once.
Now, according to a new report from Bloomberg, these PvE modes are going to be dropped entirely with the intent being to focus entirely on the PvP in the game. Furthermore, this same report states that nearly the entirety of the PvE team was terminated during the Microsoft layoffs earlier this year.
The remaining teams were informed that Blizzard had no intent on finishing any of this content and focus would be placed on the competitive elements. This was coupled with the news the team would receive zero percent of their bonuses, after being told they would receive some from the company to cover shortfalls. A lack of bonus is a rarity at Blizzard but stems from company policy changes made last year. Previously based on the success of the company it is now based on individual franchises, with Diablo and Warcraft teams receiving bonuses, a last-minute company change made by exiting CEO Bobby Kotick.
This leaves the franchise with more questions than answers. Besides a mass amount of character changes, and team player counts, Overwatch 2 was largely billed on its PvE elements. Without them, there may be more yearning for its original format. However, fans are about to receive a frequently asked-for feature, with the next Season of the game bringing new heroes to players’ rosters immediately, rather than requiring them to be earned through purchasing or playing the battle pass.
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