Overwatch 2 Recreation Director Aaron Keller has addressed criticisms that Blizzard Leisure “dropped the ball” with regards to issues like story content material, PvE, and animated shorts.
The face of Blizzard’s well-liked hero shooter opened up concerning the crew’s struggles throughout an interview with content material creator Jay3 and Overwatch 2 voice actor Conor McLeod. Though the multiplayer title is basically identified for its team-based gameplay, Keller acknowledges that some story content material might want to “come again” for Overwatch 2 to be “firing on all cylinders.”
“One of many issues that we hear our gamers discuss rather a lot, you see on-line… it seems like Overwatch has dropped the ball with regards to story and lore,” Keller stated in response to a query from McLeod. “You kinda see that. We used to place just a few extra of the large animated shorts out than we do these days.”
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Overwatch animated shorts are a sore spot for followers. Blizzard initially constructed pleasure with a collection of high-quality cinematics from 2016 to 2023, with every highlighting skills for characters like Reinhardt, Hanzo, Genji, Mei, Bastion, and extra whereas additionally displaying what number of of its 43 playable characters match into the bigger story. What started as considerably frequent lore drops ultimately began to fizzle out across the launch of Overwatch 2 in 2022. It’s been almost two years since followers obtained a 3D-animated cinematic.
Frustrations with the dearth of animated shorts reached a boiling level when Blizzard introduced it might be scrapping its PvE Hero ambitions in summer season 2023. With a long-promised story-driven mode canceled and animated brief releases crawling to a halt, Blizzard needed to begin from scratch. Though it’s been years and not using a important replace, Keller says the Overwatch 2 crew hasn’t fully left story behind.
“To talk frankly about it, we did have an enormous plan to go after story within the sport. That was the PvE aspect of it with the marketing campaign and every little thing like that,” he added. “That didn’t work out. So, it was type of a little bit of a reset second for us when that occurred, and we wish to get again to it. I feel the most effective elements of Overwatch is the universe and the characters which are there. That’s undoubtedly a objective of ours to get again to it. There’s been a little bit of a step backwards that we needed to take to ensure that us to have the ability to begin shifting ahead on it once more.”
Blizzard introduced a gameplay facelift for Overwatch 2 in February of this 12 months. Throughout its breakdown, the studio introduced a serious new PvP sport mode known as Stadium in addition to the return of free loot field beauty rewards, two new Heroes, and a gameplan for the following 12 months of content material. Many of those additions, together with a elementary gameplay change known as Perks, have launched since, signaling that Blizzard has discovered its footing because it makes good on important guarantees.
Many of those modifications have been accepted with open arms by the Overwatch 2 neighborhood, however as new gamers flock to see why followers are all of a sudden speaking concerning the 2016 hero shooter once more, the need for story content material nonetheless echoes throughout Reddit threads and X/Twitter posts.
One thought many followers – together with McLeod – would like to see is an Overwatch TV collection. Keller says he’s not against the thought, going so far as to say “we’d love to do this.” It’s unclear how, when, or if Keller and the Overwatch 2 crew will be capable to enter one other golden age. One factor is obvious: Keller is aware of Overwatch followers need extra story content material.
“I feel for us to say that Overwatch 2 is firing on all cylinders, we have to have a few of that come again,” Keller stated.
Overwatch 2 is at present within the midst of Season 17: Powered Up, which encompasses a choice of retro-gaming-inspired skins, Mythic cosmetics for Reaper and D.Va, new Stadium Heroes, and crossover content material with G.I. Joe. Time will inform if Blizzard is ready to regain misplaced floor, however within the meantime, you possibly can examine what number of gamers are lastly having fun with Overwatch once more after years of downtime. You too can take a look at the 2025 Stadium roadmap for a better take a look at a number of the content material set to reach within the close to future.
Michael Cripe is a contract contributor with IGN. He is greatest identified for his work at websites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. You’ll want to give him a observe on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
