Overwatch 2’s long-awaited story missions start rolling out next month on August 10, but from the sound of it, the three levels that launch in the first wave will be the only ones that launch in 2023.
News of this comes from executive producer Jared Neuss, who said on a stream with Twitch streamer and ex-San Francisco Shock player Emongg that fans shouldn’t expect new story missions in the next two seasons following the initial August 10 launch. Overwatch 2 seasons are nine weeks long, and season 6, the one that begins on August 15 just after the missions launch, will last until approximately mid-October. So if we shouldn’t expect any new story missions in seasons 7 or 8, then it sounds like whatever story content is coming after the first batch won’t be out until 2024.
Neuss says this is in service to making changes and updating features in future story content based on feedback. So it sounds like Overwatch 2’s promise of moving the story forward is going to be at a pretty slow pace.
The rollout of story and PvE content in Overwatch 2 has been rife with stumbles since it was first announced at BlizzCon 2019. Story elements were pitched as the dividing factor between the original hero shooter and its sequel, but Overwatch 2 launched in October of last year and just now getting story content almost a full year later.
All of this comes after Blizzard announced it would be gutting its planned PvE suite and pretty much distilling its original promise of skill trees and customisable character builds down to just the story missions. On top of this, Blizzard also announced the story missions would be $US15 paid content, rather than akin to a seasonal event that anyone could pay for free. Overwatch 2 has made a lot of shifts in those years, including pivoting to a free-to-play game. So while we still don’t know if the wait has been worth it just yet, the rollout has just been unambiguously nightmarish.
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