Jason Schreier’s original article is here
For those who encounter a paywall, an archived version is here
The important bit in his article:
Last year, Overwatch 2 received a paid pack of three PvE story missions that sold poorly, according to people familiar with the business, which was a major reason for the cratering bonuses. In January, as part of a company-wide reduction in its work force, the majority of the team behind Overwatch 2’s PvE was laid off.
Overwatch 2 developers were informed that the company does not plan to finish any of the remaining planned PvE content and will instead double down on competitive player vs. player gameplay, according to the people familiar.
Anyone who still gives Blizzard money in 2024 deserves to get milked dry. You are informed, vote with your goddamn wallet.
D4 got me. They have killed my childhood memories. I am done with them. May not even finish replaying the StarCraft series. Sad times.
Wow did it for me. OW2 convinced me it’s not coming back.
Played wow again after not touching it for years a while back. They finally get the mechanics good and fun and pushing out content, in game community is dead unless you are already in a guilds discord server. Just saying ‘hi’ is enough to get you kicked out of a group. Raiding out of LFG is impossible unless you have a damn raiding résumé ready to send. No point to play it anymore.
All the parts of a good game are there, but the soul is long dead. Community is only a few steps away from being as toxic as League of Legends.
Have you tried GW2?
It’s the “beige diesel station wagon” of MMOs. It does everything people explicity ask for: tame monetization, distinct playstyles, a world that’s worth playing outside the most recent level-cap zones, broad cosmetic options-- but it’s still seen as an afterthought.
I hear about it every now and then, but honestly, I thought it was long gone just not seeing news of it floating around. Ill have to look into it a bit more next time I get the MMO itch.
Another rec for GW2. I’d recommend you try the F2P game so you get a general sense of the mechanics and see if you like it, then wait for a sale to buy the “Elder Dragon Saga—Complete Collection” for half-price. I mean, there’s enough content for it to be worth 100 bucks, but for 50 it’s a bargain.
Maybe give FFXIV a try! There’s a pretty expanded free portion that lets you play through a large portion of the game. I enjoyed the gameplay and there’s something resembling a story.
I gave it a try and it didn’t quite hook me. I think if I knew other people IRL that I could play with, it would help. Its hard to get people to buy a game let alone get into an MMO.
Ah yeah I could see that. My family got into it for a few months and was a lot of fun. I did have pretty good experiences with randos though.
As a gigantic, avid Diablo fan who played the shit outta D2R… I had no hope for D4. I skipped it, despite all of the raucous fan praise on Reddit.
Turns out that only lasted for a month, then everyone said the game sucked. I was very unsurprised.
As a big ARPG fan, I saw that coming a mile away. I never purchased it but D4 just didn’t seem to have anything to offer the genre compared to the likes of PoE, Last Epoch, Grim Dawn, etc.
I just made my first Last Epoch char! I was surprised to find so many dope options right in the game. Like OFFLINE MODE, and a loot filter built in? Neat.
Grim Dawn confused me, moreso than PoE. I should try it again.
It’s an older Kickstart Ed title, but has good bones. It’s just got some rough edges.
Last epoch is sick! I don’t play it as much as PoE as it doesn’t have the same longevity to me, but it’s a wonderful game. You can tell LE devs were fans of Diablo 2/ PoE from the way it plays, but it still manages to innovate in it’s own way.
I like that between LE, PoE, and GD, none of them feel like clones of each other and have enough differences that i can get a new experience from each. Although as another commenter mentioned, GD is a bit rough around the edges.
Late stage D3 is what showed me the future of Blizzard. I was surprised with the success of Overwatch, but when I learned what the pubs community was like, that surprise faded.
If you haven’t tried it, Last Epoch was the first ARPG that got me hooked since D2. The itemization, crafting and skill systems are so good.
Will have to check them out, thanks!
And now D4 is copying that crafting system over in an attempt to salvage their own game.
Yeah. Same here. Blizzard: Never Again.
I feel for you. D3 was the last for me after completing all acts twice. Flashy and hollow. Decided against more Blizzard games after that account got hacked and permabanned. It would have cost $60 to play again and Blizzard support was not supportive.
They are. But have you ever tried to argue with an addict?
What’s wild is that like, Team 5 is still doing great work on Hearthstone. The WoW team seems to have really changed, stuff like their Season of Discovery and their more frequent updates of the modern WoW seems to be going over well. Then, the same company somehow shits out Overwatch 2 and D4? It’s like half of Blizzard has a brain and is listening to it’s developers, and the other half is controlled by C-suite suits who haven’t made a single good decision in an entire decade.
No shit it’s gonna fail. If you half ass something you obviously didn’t wanna do, in an already fucked up development situation, it’s not going well. No shit Sherlock.
I’m so pissed. I was so hyped for pve. I love the overwatch character design and universe but hate pvp.
The only reason I stomached all the bs of Overwatch 2 was for the promise of PvE. As soon as they announced they weren’t doing that anymore I uninstalled the game. The fact they squeezed out some half-assed story missions for a price was just the final nail in the coffin. It’s sad bc I loved OW1, but this game has become nothing more than a soulless money vaccuum.
OW1 was so much better, and I can guarantee they would’ve made more money from that model over OW2’s BS. The change to 5v5 unbalanced the entire game and required significant map changes.
It boils down to greed; some MBAs in the company were absolutely convinced that they’d make more money from this new model. Their greed sunk the whole game. Classic Blizzard.
MBA-ism strikes again
I never played either game, but I’m kinda with you on this. I don’t give a shit about LoL or Valorant, but those get their own spin-off media even though they’re not as popular as Overwatch.
I kinda love the design of the characters, and I’d love for there to be some possibly animated show or something about it all. Oh well.
I really enjoyed the base pvp game but I was also very hyped for PvE. Loved the seasonal missions and it seemed like they were really honing in on it…but I called it quits in the first month or two of OW2 when they first announced they overpromised.
The overwatch character design is amazing. The latest heroes not so much, but overall the world is so well done. The short clips were Disney like and I always dreamed about a full movie or extended series. it never happened.
It’s frustrating when you’ve been part of this universe for many years, thousands of thousands of hours and then have to witness what Blizzard does with this IP. I’ve probably played more Overwatch than all my other games combined. Also there’s an “enjoyment vacuum” in my heart now, as nothing comes close to the charm of these heroes.
The part that gets me is “cratering bonuses”. They canceled projects and ruined people’s lives by firing them not because the company was hurting, or in heavy debt, or facing bankruptcy, but because their managers and C-level executives earned a bit less than usual due to poor planing and management.
Corporate America can go fuck themselves with sand.
I have a friend that worked at a studio as desk side IT and he got randomly terminated by Sony. The right after they hired 4 additional managers for their 10 man team.
If your company is losing money it 10000000% should start at the top.
The poor sand…
I guess they expected people to buy based on future expectations
That’s Blizzard’s business model at this point.
That’s the standard AAA gaming business model at this point.
Buy now, get (scammed) later
It’s mind-blowing how bad they fucked up Overwatch. All they had to do was keep the OW1 servers and progression for PvP, and sell PvE expansion packs. Expand the lore through PvE expansion packs and offer exclusive cosmetics that people can show off in PvP, but don’t stop releasing cosmetics that can be obtained through PvP gameplay.
Add on a battle pass for more exclusive cosmetics (NOT FUCKING HEROES), and bam you’ve got a stew going.
That would bring in more than enough revenue to keep the servers running and making a tidy profit for years, like TF2.
As someone that was only ever waiting for the long promised PvE part of the game to finally play it, 3 missions didn’t seem like enough to fully dive into the game. Was waiting til it had more than an hour of content. Oh well. The writing was on the wall long ago to not get my hopes up. On me for forgetting that for a minute.
Leopardsatemyface
Y’all deserved to get wrecked after what they did overwatch.
It is unbelievable how poorly managed overwatch has been for years now. Talk about a cash cow they just refused to feed properly
Wait so did it release last year or did it get cancelled before release.
Also why the fuck would they charge for it?
Also why the fuck would they charge for it?
Because they have long since moved away from selling worthwhile products to selling anything they can trick people into buying. Providing value is no longer a concern, only short-term profit.
My issue was the price of it. For 3 missions, and to spend MAYBE a couple hours and then never touch again was ridiculous.
So glad I never bought OW2. PvE stuff never appealed to me.
It’s a free game, so no one bought it.
Still overpriced
You could pay money to “buy” it.
You could purchase its initial battle pass on launch, but that’s what you were buying - not the game.
