Overwatch 2: PvE mode has basically been scrapped and just scaled back

Overwatch 2 has always been designed not only as a multiplayer PvP title, but it should also have a PvE component. Such a thing is already coming, albeit in a much different way than originally planned.

The original plan was to release Overwatch 2 as a big game with extensive PvP and PvE content. Blizzard Entertainment later pulled these two areas apart and first launched the competitive PvP segment, which has been successful ever since. The PvE part should follow – and it does now, albeit in a significantly different form than previously assumed.

As Game Director Aaron Keller and Executive Producer Jared News have now explained in a broadcast on Twitch, a PvE component is on the way right now, but in a slimmer form. In short: you shouldn’t expect a full-fledged PvE game in the Overwatch universe – unlike previous plans.

The roadmap for the next three seasons has now been revealed – and in Season 6, PvE story missions will also be included in the game. In addition, there should also be a new support hero and a time-limited event called Questwatch. But back to the story missions: instead of a full PvE game, it now has to be integrated into the live service roadmap. Translating this to mean: in the course of future seasons, you’ll always have new story missions on hand, but you can no longer expect a sprawling PvE experience and hours of coherent, all-encompassing PvE experience to start with.

It’s also fitting that the progression system that was originally intended for the PvE part, including hero talent trees, has been scrapped and will therefore no longer appear. “Unfortunately, the development of the PvP experience hasn’t made the progress we’d hoped,” Noyce explains overall.

Further: “The team has created a bunch of great content, so there will be really cool and exciting missions. There are brand new enemies and some really cool and funny hero talents. But unfortunately all the effort needed to put it all together and release it at Blizzard quality is really huge and there’s really no end in it.” horizon, so we were faced with another difficult decision: let’s keep putting all our efforts into PvE and hope we can finally make it in the future, or focus on the live game?”

Eventually, it became clear that the original vision for PvE, which debuted in 2019, was not going to be realized. As a result, many items have now been scrapped and co-op PvE story missions will be released as part of the live service plan – but not the full PvE mode.