Blizzard Details Overwatch 2 2023 Roadmap

Blizzard today revealed their roadmap for the next few months during a livestream of developers. This roadmap was revealed by Aaron Keller, the game director, and Jared Neuss as executive producer. It details what will be coming in Seasons 5, 6, 7 and beyond. The Overwatch 2 team also revealed when we can expect to see the PvE update that was first announced with the game back in 2019.

Keller explained on the stream: “As we worked on Overwatch 2 more slowly, our attention and focus shifted away from all the people playing the game in real time.” We had players who were very excited about playing the game and wanted to play it more. It was a tough decision to make. We could have continued working on Overwatch 2 with no end in sight. Or, we could change our approach and release something sooner. Overwatch 2 was released in October last year with a new hero, a new map, a new mode, and seasonal updates. But more than that, we shifted our values for how we want to develop the game. We would no longer store up content for big releases, and let the game sort-of languish on the side. “We made the decision to prioritize all the players of the game, and our development effort will be devoted to them.”

Season 5, which has the theme of “Mischief and Magic,” is currently set to kick off on June 13. This fifth season of the live-service shooter brings events and modes, including a new limited-time event called Questwatch, as well as the return of the Summer Games event. On the roadmap, there is a cinematic unveiling, a 5-v-5 mini-comp season, the Creator Workshop Mode, and a return of On Fire, which was in Overwatch.

Blizzard has hailed Season 6 as the largest release of new content since Overwatch 2 was launched last October. The Season 6 event will feature a brand new Overwatch support hero as well as Hero Mastery and a Firing range. It also includes the Overwatch Anniversary Event. The most important thing is that Season 6 brings players PvE-content announced in 2019. Story Missions are part of the Season 6 content. The Hero Missions PvE has unfortunately been dropped from the plans.

Neuss, a streamer said: “Development in the PvE hasn’t really made the progress we would have expected.” The team has produced some incredible content. The team has created some amazing content. “There are awesome missions which are very exciting. Brand new enemies are fun to battle. And there are also some great and absurd hero skills. Unfortunately, it’s going to take a lot of effort to bring all that together into a Blizzard quality experience we can deliver to you. And there isn’t definite end in sight, or if we could, we would have to do so by X date. So, now we are faced with a difficult decision: do we pour our effort into PvE hoping to land it in the near future, or stick with the set of values on which we all agreed and concentrate on the Live Game and on serving you all? We’ve realized that in order to run this game as you expect, we cannot deliver the original PvE vision that we presented for 2019. We won’t deliver the Hero Mode that was shown in 2019.

Finaly, we found out what Season 7 will bring. These include a tank hero and the reworked versions of Roadhog, Sombra and other heroes. Also, there are new Hero Mastery multiplayer missions, cinematic premieres, the return of popular modes, Competitive Mastery Heroes, a collaboration mode for a limited period of time, as well as a lore-codex.

Overwatch 2 launches on Oct. 4, 2022. Although the first response to Overwatch was positive (read here our review), the way in which the game is supported and its season pass system has discouraged some players from continuing with it.