“We can no longer deliver on that original vision” No, you can no longer deliver on the original PROMISE.

If I had spent any money on this game I would be really mad right now

It's incredible how most high-end gaming companies fail to make any decent choices

Mei’s sorry voiceline apologizes better than Blizzard does

I’ve never seen a company that has to do SO LITTLE to not be hated, consistently fail to do so. It’s almost impressive.

You glanced over the worst part, they actually scrapped the PvE last year and are only now revealing the decision. So, the excuse for this year's content being lackluster due to the heavy development of PvE is about as real as the 2 on Overwatch2

Bilzzard is truly the definition of “It takes years to build reputation, moments to ruin it at all”

When Jeff left, I had a sinking feeling that pve story wasnt coming anymore.

PvE was never Overwatch’s main thing the way it was with Left 4 Dead or Payday. But Blizzard promised a lot. They built enormous PvE anticipation as the primary excuse for a new title- and then betrayed it.

To the former Overwatch players who left during OW1 and never returned, you're not missing much.

Blizzard really embodies the 'die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain' ethos.

The part where u mention the team "patting themselves on the back" over the little amount that they DID do, has been so true for years as a path2pro player for a long time. For 2 years straight since they stopped updating ow1 to focus on ow2, they would go on interviews every few months for "exciting game announcements" where they would practically just talk about nothing for 30 minutes straight, show that bastion would have a hat, then talk about how great the development team is working on the game. This should not be surprising at all for anyone whose kept up with OW consistently

Imagine working on something for 4 years, and then your boss says "nevermind, just forget about it, we changed our mind"

The worst part is how limitless the potential of Overwatch truly is. Every single character could be the main character of a triple A game. They canceled the comics for this. They killed overwatch 1 for this.

It’s crazy how rule 34 overwatch artists are more consistent then the devs themselves

One thing that sticks in my head is when Jared Nuss says "clearly we couldn't continue to deliver at the level YOU expect" so... it's our fault as gamers I guess for being just too darn demanding in our relationship with a multi billion dollar game developer probably a bad take but that line stick in my brain

being an Overwatch fan feels like watching your partner succumb to addiction

Jeff unexpectedly jumping ship all that time ago makes a LOT more sense now

Thank you Charlie for sympathizing with my pain. Being an Overwatch fan is like having your father promise to get you a gift before he gets drunk a few hours later and decides to beat you over the head with an empty bottle instead.

The _entire_ reason OW2 exists is because they claimed they needed a new engine to be able to pull off what they wanted to do in the PvE (lighting, weather effects, etc), but switching to that new engine broke so many things. Lots of old features are still missing because they couldn't port them over, and they even had to disable characters (Mei, Torb, Bastion) because of game-breaking bugs that suddenly popped up. And don't forget, in a Game Informer interview from Sept 2022, Aaron Keller stated that it took them _OVER A YEAR_ just to make one mythic skin. These people aren't just con artists, they're completely and utterly incompetent.

The biggest change between 1 and 2 was the monetization model; adding a paid battlepass and charging $20 for skins that used to be free and easily accessible by just playing the game. Their only real justification for replacing the first game was wringing as much money as they can from the wallets of their fans. The new maps, balancing, and characters are cool, but those are all things we were already recieving regularly in the first game

So the whole team worked 4 years to deliver nothing? Thats impressive.

At this point I truly believe the only reason they updated the game to Overwatch 2 was to slap a battle pass on the game and shift from free earnable cosmetics to aggressive monetization. Definitely one of the video game sequels of all time.

Other Devs: "We wanted to only make a DLC, but it got so big that it turned into its own game." Blizzard: "We announced a sequel, and then turned it into something that would stretch the definition of even a DLC too generously."

As a game dev myself, I feel terrible for all the 3d artists and programmers working on the PvE all this time. Imagine working on something for 4 years only to have all your hard work thrown away in an instant.

This mode was literally the ONE THING that was supposed to make the two games different

It's such a shame that this poor indie company can't deliver the promises they made for their game. Oh well, I'm sure Diablo 4 will be GREAT, guys.

“We can no longer deliver on that vision, we realised it was taking away from the live game” YOU PUT THE LIVE GAME ON LIFE SUPPORT FOR FOUR YEARS

I'm an Overwatch, Halo and Battlefield fan. This has been the most depressing year of my entire life. At least Capcom learned from their mistakes.

feels like a certified "Don't you guys have phones?" moment.

The most annoying thing is they kept excusing lack of content updates by saying they were putting resources into PVE but then they told us they scrapped PVE and showed a roadmap that was still lackluster.

You are absolutely right. The PvE was the only reason the game was still on my console. I miss OW1 and there was a reason it was the only pvp FPS game I played. I haven’t put any money down on this one but I had been ready and willing to pay for that story mode. The announcement was the biggest disappointment up to date which is an “achievement” on its own.😡

This game's development is the very definition of "our expextations were low but holy fuck"

What’s wild is the community managed to almost make what they promised for ow2 in ow1 with custom games using a limited tool set and creating for free. There were some absolutely wild custom community made games but a multi billion dollar company couldn’t manage that with almost no limitations while making a fortune doing it

So basically let me get this straight: They stripped our OW1 rewards, took our level profile borders, didn't give us old player's access to the old skins with our old currency till SEASON 3, neglected the community for two years because of PvE, recycled events, THEN they make a FTP model with promises of PvE, not even giving proper Beta access to early/loyal players that have been around since pre-ordered/beta for OW1, even if you max a pass over 200 levels (you can by doing bare minimum aka daily logins/weeklies or less if you're a streamer/T500) but you still get nothing after to progress your border, and now no more PvE skill trees that must hit hard for a lot of us that played for a long time. They branded OW2 as a PvE and FPT PvP experience only to completely scrap the whole thing except their monetization methods. IG they made their bag and dipped lolll

This actually put the nail in the coffin for me in OW. I used to love the game, played it every day, loved all the events and whatnot. I was also really looking forward to the story mode eventually. Then OW 2 came out and I thought "ahh theyll add PVE later, itll be fine :) " and was even more excited. Now i feel like theres no point. The story and characters was the most interesting part. Very few multiplayer FPS games actually have a good story thats interesting to me, and OW was one of them. but it looks like the devs dont give a shit so theres no point in playin for me anymore.

If you ever hear triple A devs say "we've made the difficult decision to...." or " we looked at every option but..." basically means "we saw an opportunity to improve the game but went down the money making route instead, sorry our useless CEOs need more money and the reduction to our salary wasn't enough"

I know we memed the hell out of Jeff but after he left, it hasn't felt like the game i was interested in for a looong time. Ill always treasure the phrase "Jeff from the Overwatch team here.."

Leaving your GOTY without content during the pandemic were everyone was playing games to then cancel what was supposedly developed during this time period gotta be one of the dumbest decisions in gaming history.

Ghost Ship Games really delivers with Deep Rock Galactic. It's a hell of a pve co-op fps experience. Also, the community is amazing. If overwatch 2 is enough of a disappointment that you need to find something to quench that thirst for such a game, check it out. Rock and Stone!

It's genuinely impressive how much a large company somehow doesnt have enough people to split between doing pve and pvp

Wow. My expectations for OW2 was on the floor and Blizzard brought a shovel.

Don't forget: If you bought the original Overwatch 1 you not only lost access to it but also got effectively nothing as compensation for it, on top of the fact that basic access to new heroes is tied to a battle pass that takes excessive grinding which (by pure random chance) upon BUYING will grant immediate access to the character without grinding at all.

My hypothesis on Corporate Mentality: 1. Declare PVE is canceled (6 yrs content over) 2. Wait for upset fans to blow over 3. Re-purpose scrapped PVE content into small elements of the " New events/skins/maps and content" 4. Monetize the shit out of step 3 to recuperate losses for 6 years of PVE development.

As a programmer subtraction can be extremely difficult to do properly. It took me YEARS to master this art and I still get it wrong. Grades 1-3 were rough

Being an Overwatch fan right now feels like your realizing the person you've been married to and have kids with is the type of person that never keeps their promises and just wants you for your money.

The fact they deleted over watch one so we can’t even go back for nostalgia is heartbreaking and enraging

Even the last TF2 dev is sadly shaking his head in his broom closet office.

as a _Halo_ fan, having your new game launch without the promised co-op, progression system & PvE - I know how it feels

I got Overwatch in 2017 and played with my friends daily, I loved the game, the atmosphere it created, this new feeling it brought. I payed money to get it, I payed money for lootboxes because they made me so excited. The event game modes with little story modes, ect. That game was my absolute favourite game, I still know so much about the characters and their lore. Now it feels so empty, everything that made it what it was is gone. Couldn't they have made an actual second game? I would still be playing the first one. They ruined it and I'm just so upset about it.

man i feel terrible for the people who were actually working in the trenches on this. to work THAT LONG and never see the content go live must be demoralizing as hell.

Jeff made one of the best decisions in history

Valve has what Blizzard hasn't... One dedicated janitor to his job.

This hurts. It's hard to believe how hard Blizzard fumbled this.

At this point, it's not about the PvE It's about the lies and the treatment the community has gotten. It feels like finding out a dark truth about your partner almost 2 years later and having to process everything at that moment, to all the way back from when this occurred. It's some strong emotions, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's the last straw for a lot of people.

This was like being stranded on a island and seeing a ship comes towards u in the distance for it to turn away right in front of u, leaving u stranded for even longer

Let's be real here, OW 2 was just blizzard being greedy and making up an excuse so the could get that good, good item shop and battlepass money. They couldn't switch over to a paid battlepass in OW 1 because it was pay to play. So they used the 2 remaining braincells to come up with the OW 2 plan, and most importantly... The new forms of monetization. And then they had the audacity to make OW 1 players have to pay for post season 1 content, and not making it possible to go back to earning levels and getting ingame content that way.

It's amazing how companies choose to be anti-consumer and make less money than being pro-consumer and making more.

I’m honestly not surprised. Remember that they’ve assured us it takes them over a year to work on a single mythical skin. If they’re that incompetent then how could they create a new mode? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Im just amazed game developers haven't been sued for false advertisements at this point. They'd known for quite some time it wasn't going to be added, and they sat on it.

Imagine if video game companies actually just followed through with what they promised.

this has proved that the entire point of the sequel was to convert loot boxes and tokens into micro transactions

Videogame companies make whole games from 0% to 100% in 4 years and Blizzard couldn't even add a PvE mode in an already existing and flushed out game that I can't even begin to imagine how much money it makes per year, truly the company of all times

Had to come back to this video after seeing a big possibility of story mode missions being cancelled. If this actually happens blizzard has really become a joke hahaha

For four years, Merlin trained Arthur, have him an education, so he could be king. Then Arthur went to draw the sword from the stone. And it broke.

2k+ hours on OW1. I played 2 weeks of OW2 and had enough. How they managed to destroy a classic game is beyond me 💀

Watching a game you fell in love in 2016 just crumble and fall by an uncaring company is really heartbreaking

I'm sad to say that i'll be uninstalling overwatch 2 and battle net as of today, I have so many fond memories of overwatch, i remember being a highschool freshmen and staying up till 3 am in my uncles room while he was away playing this game with friends, screaming at the top of my lungs and just all out having a blast, i remember the first time i hit masters and i felt like i was on top of the world, I remember when i first started to play sombra and was enthralled in her gameplay and lore, becoming determined to be the best at her on console ladder, I remember being in school and being tired from a long night of gaming the day before, but also excited to come home and play even more. This game was essentially my little childhood i got, most of my childhood was plagued with tragedy from a broken home and family, but this game was the only place where i felt happy, where i felt like I had friends who liked me, where i felt at peace, I loved it because even though life treated me poorly and that I felt completely worthless and alone, it was overwatch that was my hero and gave me friends that i cherish today and memories that i will hold on too forever. It feels strange to leave it behind, almost like the end of an era for me, but also symbolic as it also feels like im moving on from my childhood. I'm 20 now and im almost at tears as i type this, but I will always love you overwatch, im sorry things ended up this way and i wish that they didnt, and i will always love you sombra, i will miss playing as you and hearing your snarky quips and im sorry i have to leave you behind, my only gem from that game. Goodbye overwatch.

"After the game launched, we realized we couldn't finish it" Basically.

I have felt really down about myself and my life for the past four years. I felt like I've been wasting my life and throwing away my potential. But thank you Blizzard, for helping me realize that I'm not that big of a screw up.

As a former overwatch fan, I can say with certainty that this is what I've been waiting for these past few years, only to hear that it's going to be cancelled, is infuriating and sad from what this franchise has become, Cash grab.

If the PVE content they plan on releasing and making for the game is like the other PVE content and things they made during events and such already and in the past (which I imagine it is, maybe bigger and longer than previous ones) then thats even more of a let down than just scrapping the PVE all together, its like rubbing salt in a open wound and squeezing lemon juice into eyes supremepatty style.

It feels like planning a party for an old friend, only to find out they were never going to show up, went to an entirely different party, and died there. It's a weird betrayal from a place of love, and while you try to cheer yourself up on the memories you made together, you're angry that they lied and misled you, but you still mourn for the loss of your friend.

I genuinely feel bad for the people who spent four years of hard work on the PvE, only for it to be cancelled because there higher-ups fumbling and dropped the ball so hard. I would have quit instantly hearing that news.

Thanks for covering this Charlie. They should be publicly shamed everywhere

With all the people uninstalling there's gonna be so many bots we won't even need pve to fight with non-players

The saddest part about this is not being basically lied to, not having ow go without new hero and maps for a year in order for them to "work on ow 2" not even the fact that we were forcibly moved to this new cash grab system, but the fact they can sit there and be like "yeah. I know some of you are gonna be upset about this, but hey we'll give you a road map of more content you need to buy 😊"

Overwatch has such potential, and it's honestly impressive how efficiently Blizzard manages to fumble that potential again and again

Do you remember when Blizzard wouldn’t release any game until it reached their standards of quality? Those were good times……

As a Heroes of the Storm player my heart goes out to the Overwatch players who have also been utterly shafted by Blizzard

I hate myself for making my wallet the biggest victim of this. The “story missions” will just feel like the junkenstine events

Blizzard really took the, “you’re one of those heroes aren’t you? Not anymore” to heart

RIP Overwatch 2016-2019. the peak years.

So I gotta ask now, as someone who pre ordered the game back when it was stated that it would be a PvE experience and such, is this now considered false advertising? Is this something that they can actually do? Because if so I want to ask, am I entitled to a refund of the game since they're doing this? The product I purchased is now not the product that was advertised and I'm curious if there's anything I can do to get that money back

Can confirm as a guy who played the original overwatch beta and played through the 4 years of nothing just to get this is heartbreaking and it hurts

Blizzard try not to disappoint your fans challenge: IMPOSSIBLE

The fact that their "announcement" vid isn't an apology shows how little they actually care about the fans.

that face when you have a whole office/studio of devs to make a game yet an indie game outperforms you

blizzard has an amazing ability to take good things and ruin them as fast as possible

I’m glad I got to experience prime OW1. It was incredible. RIP OW. Patiently waiting for a third-party to take the OW formula to the next level

The craziest thing that ive been saying for awhile now about overwatch/blizzard is how they r just fuking sleeping on a gold mine of an Arcane type animated series. Their cinematics r amazing, like how have they NOT done something like this yet for almost 7 yrs now is insane to me

excited to play lucioball, junkenstien’s revenge, and mei’s snowball offensive for the 70th year in a row

I am in agony, because all of those characters, all of that potential. For stories, for lore, for world building...

This is the saddest and most miserable end to OW in general. I feel so bad for yall who followed this game since its launch and I really wanted to try it out at some point but never mind.

This is like announcing a new iPhone with new features and when the phone comes out it doesn’t have the new features, and now the features won’t be coming so it’s basically the same iPhone you already had

You never realise how good you have it as a Splatoon Fan until other shooters do stuff like this.

I love how they just casually slipped this into the last 10 min of their stream like it wasn't a big deal 🤣 Activision Blizzard proves once again how morally bankrupt they are...

This is the best tf2 advert blizzard has ever put out.

I remember getting OW1 because I thought there would be a story mode. To wait all these years to get to ACTUALLY PLAY THE GAME I WAS ADVERTIZED to get nothing because of crappy executives chasing the money instead of the fun-- I'm never touching another Blizzard title again.

I love that Blizzard basically lowered the bar to the ground and they still managed to limbo under it.