Overwatch 2 Game Director Aaron Keller addresses removal of Hero Missions

Fans have been unhappy after the recent cancellation of the campaign PvE mode that developers Blizzard first showed at BlizzCon in 2019. They have voiced their opinions across different forums and have ensured their voices are heard.

Aaron Keller, the game director, has clarified that they didn’t mean to cancel the PvE mode outright but to make changes to their original plans. He shared that their plans had become somewhat overambitious, and given the game’s long-term success, they had to take the step to remove Hero Missions as they couldn’t deliver the envisioned experience.

Initially, he mentions that the game was designed to feature both Story Missions and Hero Missions. Story Missions will offer co-op gameplay, a linear narrative, and fresh cinematics to advance the main storyline of the game.

The Story Missions will launch in Season 6, as their roadmap mentions. Hero Modes, on the other hand, would have had an in-development game mode that allowed players to upgrade individual heroes through talent trees and would have been re-playable.

He mentioned that Overwatch in 2016 came into development after the failure of a specific “Project Titan” at Blizzard. They planned to design Overwatch as an FPS MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online).

However, he admitted that they had deviated from their original vision and struggled to find footing with the Hero Mission experience even early in development. He said, “We were trying to do too many things at once, and we lost focus.”

He acknowledged that the choice to scrap the Hero Missions was incredibly difficult, aware of the risk of disappointing players, the team, and everyone who looked forward to it.

Even as a game director, he found it challenging to make the call but chose to consider the game’s future in the long run. While this news is disappointing, there’s a lot more to come from Blizzard in the future.

Story Missions will delve deeper into the Overwatch universe, with new types of co-op content, and stories.

While the choice has left waves of disappointment amongst most fans, there is a positive note to take away from this chapter. It shows that Blizzard chose to care and scrap an idea instead of delivering a half-baked product.

About Overwatch 2

Overwatch 2 is an upcoming first-person shooter developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. The sequel to the 2016 hero shooter Overwatch, the game is intended to have a shared environment for player-versus-player (PvP) modes with the first game while introducing persistent cooperative modes. A major change in PvP was to reduce team sizes from six to five, which required several characters to be reworked.

Overwatch 2 is set to launch as free-to-play on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in early access on October 4, 2022. It will feature full cross-platform play.