Overwatch 2 unveiled a roadmap of what players can expect in 2023 with the game’s sixth season and unfortunately, it has been revealed that the game’s long-awaited PvE hero mode has been canceled.

However the game’s developers have assured fans that they will still be focusing on PvE content going forward.

Blizzard says that players can look forward to PvE Story Missions in Season 6. These will come complete with in-game cinematics, that will push the narrative arc of Overwatch forward for the first time since the original game release. Also coming in Season 6 are a new Support hero, a new core game mode in Flashpoint (with two new maps), and more. Details for all of this will be shared in the coming months before Season 6 launches later this summer.

Hero Mode Cancelation 

Regarding the cancelation of Hero Mode, Execture Producer Jared Nuess explained on a live-Stream detailing the content roadmap (via IGN) that the PvE experience had “not made the progress the team had hoped”.

“The team has created a bunch of amazing content so there are awesome missions that are really exciting. There are brand new enemies that are super fun to fight and some truly great and ridiculous hero talents. But unfortunately, the effort required to pull all of that together into a Blizzard-quality experience that we can ship to you is huge, and there really is no end in sight or defined kind of end date where we can put that out into the world”.

“With everything we have learned about what it takes to operate this game at the level that you deserve, it’s clear that we can’t deliver on that original vision for PvE that was shown in 2019. What that means is that we won’t be delivering that dedicated hero mode with talent trees, that long-term talent power progression. Those things are just not in our plans anymore. And we know that this is going to be disappointing to many of you which is why we wanted to bring it up before we talk about the road map. And to be perfectly honest it’s been really difficult for many of us and a lot of folks on the team that pour their heart and soul into that stuff”.

Canceling the PvE Hero Mode is significant as it was a heavily marketed feature for Overwatch 2 that was meant to differentiate it from its predecessor.

New PvE Content

The developer however has reaffirmed that there will still be a lot of story-oriented PvE content coming to the game such as with the aforementioned story missions coming to Season 6.

“We have a lot coming out this year, and even if you look at Season 6, it’s the biggest season we’ve ever launched in the history of Overwatch,” says Director Aaron Keller in an interview with Gamespot. “There will be a new PvE event that season. We have a whole new type of PvE content that we’re releasing with our single-player Hero mastery missions… So I hope that players can see that we are still committed to PvE and we are doing more with the story than we’ve ever done before. We’re just doing it in a different way than what we originally talked about.”

Overwatch 2 is available for PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.