Overwatch’s Game Director apologies for canceling PvE mode

After receiving widespread criticism for two days from players over the canceled PvE mode, Aaron Keller, the Game Director of Overwatch 2, has apologized to fans in a letter published today.

Blizzard revealed earlier this week that it would no longer deploy the game’s most eagerly awaited PvE features. After the announcement, Overwatch fans appeared disappointed and upset over Blizzard’s mishap, with many of them accusing the company of making false promises. The outrage from the community has even entered the stream of the 2023 Overwatch World Cup, with every comment urging participants to shun Overwatch and Blizzard.

 

Aaron Keller, the director of Overwatch 2, has published a letter of apology to fans today in response to their concerns and to explain the rationale behind the decision to scrap Hero Mode. According to Keller, the team struggled to get a grip on the Hero Mission experience. While creating a lot of useful pieces, nothing ever managed to bring everything together into a cohesive, shippable experience.

Keller used flowery language to describe Overwatch as a game that sprang from Blizzard’s decision to scrap Project Titan, an MMO it was developing. According to Keller, the idea was to keep expanding Overwatch to make it something bigger, though not nearly Titan-sized.

Keller tries to explain why the team held off on publicizing their decision to scrap the mode until 2023 (which was the deadline for the release of the Hero mode). Lastly, people have wondered why this announcement came at this time. Keller claims that the team chose to entirely abandon Hero Missions after realizing they couldn’t continue to give the promised PvE mode their full attention as plans escalated.

Fans are still furious despite Keller’s apology

The Overwatch 2 team is still dedicated to delivering Story Missions, new co-op content, and new storylines conveyed both within and outside of the game itself, Keller concludes in his article. If you’ve been playing Overwatch since 2017, you’ll be aware that this description sounds a lot like the Story Archives, which gave players the first taste of the game’s brief PvE missions.

Naturally, many were dubious due to how condensed and brief the Story Archives were. But, the new game engine for Overwatch 2 will have to put in extra effort to disprove the skeptics. Despite the game director’s apologetic letter, Overwatch players are still enraged about the scrapped PvE mode. However, there isn’t much that players can do to voice their views on this issue, which is why many are using the title’s official streams to voice their displeasure.

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