Blizzard has recently announced that the canceled PvE Hero mode for Overwatch 2 was originally designed to serve as a bridge towards a revival of Project Titan, the MMO canceled years ago from which Overwatch was derived. Game director Aaron Keller wrote in a blog post that Overwatch was “born from the ashes of Project Titan” and that the developers had planned to return to the scope of the MMO after it was shelved.
Keller revealed that there was a three-part plan in place to eventually get to the point of releasing an MMO, starting with releasing Overwatch. “Overwatch was the crawl, a dedicated version of PvE was the walk, and an MMO was the run,” Keller states. “It was built into the DNA of the team early on, and some of us considered that final game a true realization of the original vision of Project Titan.”
Blizzard had previously announced that Overwatch 2’s Hero mode was canceled due to its ambitious nature making it too difficult to manage. Keller added that the team had an exciting vision, but it was too gargantuan for them to achieve. “We were continuously pulling resources away from the live game in an attempt to realize it,” he said. “I can’t help but look back on our original ambitions for Overwatch and feel like we used the slogan of ‘crawl, walk, run’ to continue to march forward with a strategy that just wasn’t working.”
The cancellation of Overwatch 2’s Hero mode was met with disappointment from players, who questioned the need for a sequel in the first place. To calm players down, Blizzard has been pointing out that PvE will still exist in some form going forward – just not in its own dedicated mode. One Overwatch lead also shot down a rumor that the promised PvE mode was gutted due to a controversial policy change.
Blizzard’s Project Titan was first announced in 2007 and was expected to be a next-generation MMO that would compete with World of Warcraft. However, the project was canceled in 2014 after years of development, with Blizzard citing that the game didn’t meet their expectations. Overwatch was then born from the ashes of Project Titan, with many of the same assets and concepts being repurposed for the new game.
In conclusion, Blizzard had a grand plan for Overwatch’s future, with the game being a stepping stone towards an eventual MMO. However, the ambitious nature of Overwatch 2’s Hero mode proved too much for the team to handle, leading to its cancellation. Despite this setback, Blizzard is still committed to delivering PvE content in the future, and players can look forward to new updates and modes.
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