Overwatch 2 PvE is Dead...But Dev DESTROYS Blizzard!

We're now learning what roles across Blizzard and Overwatch 2 have been terminated by microsoft. All indicators point towards an arbitrary decision to cancel, or at the very least, heavily scale back any and all future PvE content for the game.
SOURCES
/ 1
to...
/ 1750609197786648845
mn...
/ 1750687319886274686
/ 1750589807041089546
/ 1750594529701609878
/ 1750599000104091938
/ 1750597719977267378
/ 1750604490926116892
mo...
/ 1750608088519070204
ik...
/ 1750613871713230912
/ 1750617133225267616
wa...
/ 1750618925094851074
/ 1750613151903830359
/ 1750678190887182798
/ 1750672714669687139
/ 1750622398670622767
/ 1750601871188988374
as...
or...
#Overwatch2 #Blizzard #Stylosa
👉 My NEW Stylosa Plays channel! bit.ly/StylosaC...
👉 Twitter / stylosa
👉 Insta / stylosa
👉 Discord JOIN NOW! / discord
👉 PATREON CAMPAIGN! / unitlost
👉 Twitch / stylosa

[@swooglebomb3707]

It's funny as hell that the missions tab is still there when it's completely pointless and not being updated

[@Sipsipsip600]

It's funny as hell that the missions tab is still there when it's completely pointless and not being updated

[@swooglebomb3707]

@@Sipsipsip600 thanks for repeating it we all needed that bro

[@junebug8530]

It’s funny as hell that the missions tab is still there when it’s completely pointless and not being updated

[@Ulikander4001]

It's funny as hell that the missions tab is still there when it's completely pointless and not being updated

[@swooglebomb3707]

What is happening

[@WarriorDan]

Hard to say that rn we're getting a "scaling back of PVE" when there literally are no confirmed plans for future PVE to begin with.

[@turkeyman631]

Exactly. I dont see the big deal and honestly makes me glad that it's all over with. Think about how many dev hours went into that for what was essentially a glorified seasonal event that cost $$$.

[@someoneidk3995]

​@@turkeyman631idiota

[@somone755]

If they were going to do anything with PvE they should not announce anything about it. Just drop it. Announcing it early could bring back old drama

[@vellathewench]

There was promise of small bits of PvE like the one you had to pay for. Now nothing. I'm not shocked really.

[@Sipsipsip600]

Hard to say that rn we're getting a "scaling back of PVE" when there literally are no confirmed plans for future PVE to begin with.

[@williamp9560]

Microsoft was literally like “Saved?! More like under new management.”

[@riptyurass302]

Which is actually good? You don’t buy out a failing business and keep the employees, you rehire and work towards recovery. You guys legitimately think OW 2 could recover just with a change of execs? The PVE and balancing team have to go and be filled with more competent people. Everyone also seems to have forgo that most of these people helped create the whole toxic workplace culture, probably best to keep it and let it bleed into Microsoft too 👀

[@ferdinandnegron4382]

​@@riptyurass302 don't write with common sense dude! People will attack you for it lmao

[@gurgleblaster2282]

​@riptyurass302 exactly you got to cut out the gangrene, and not let the body fester.

[@dethbedsmolzwhent.t6498]

Interesting world we live in right?@@ferdinandnegron4382

[@Simalf13]

So Blizzard did not just kill PvE once but twice?

[@BapLampxSuzu]

“Double tapped”

[@jeremycaswell]

Microsoft did

[@dampayload]

Mercy rez it in a bad spot so it got killed again.

[@Markm8]

Impressive

[@ziggos9810]

Double brutality!

[@the_allens_]

Every time it seems like they are headed in the right direction they prove that they literally do not understand at all why people love the game and move in the completely wrong direction.

[@JonathanVisger]

This deserves being pinned to the top

[@jksguycode1763]

They literally made a deal with the devil EA would’ve been a better choice than Microsoft

[@Halollet]

This, 100%. I want these higher ups to explain how there was Overwatch Porn before the game even came out, if the art, characters, and lore are not important.

[@mito._]

Welp. Time to play some Palworld! :D

[@johnsonspark171]

over-under for when Sty farms the leaks that just broke for S9? If they end up being true the game is officially dead. What a clueless developer

[@MaddyGatzka]

An indie developer I followed talked about how all these layoffs will lead to an indie game golden age in a few years. Not really a silver lining, being laid off is devastating ( I was laid off 10 months ago and haven't recovered yet), but I hope some of these devs team up and create something great down the line.

[@KumaOso16]

I was laid off back in August. It's hard out there and it seems like it doesn't matter the field. As an American, I would not be surprised if multi-generational households become more common in the US as a result.

[@Xport9]

Yeah, a indies have been on the rise since 2010, and it will just get bigger. That's why I mostly buy indie stuff, since they are not constraint with big corpo, plus they can make some cool stuff. I'll buy Triple A games once in a while, if it's good, but I mostly support indie devs.

[@lancefisher8358]

​@KumaOso16 yep mass lay offs hit every company especially work from home jobs

[@M3galodon]

cough Palworld cough

[@shap7296]

@@KumaOso16they are already 300% more common now than 20 years ago

[@dislikebutton1]

It’s so sad to see this community get punched in the stomach over and over again, by heart goes out to all those effected by the lay off… I hope we see improvement soon…

[@drewber2006]

We wont. Its the gaming industry. Until more companies like CIG to take money from these mega corps this crap will happen every hear.

[@wookieninja8794]

Not me. I'm looking forward to what a new team can do. This team truly has no idea what they were doing. OW sucks and has sucked the majority of OW2. Now Kotick and most if not all the team are gone. It's going to change for sure. Maybe it'll actually be good and I'll reinstall the game.

[@verdant1029]

It's as if the overwatch community was attacked by star platinum.

[@hakaishin7859]

Not really. Community deserves to get shit on. They're the idiots who keep supporting them lol Support garbage = receive garbage. How is that hard to understand?

[@fuwameanssoft]

@@wookieninja8794You realise that the majority of people that were mentioned were artists, animators, narrative designers etc, right? Only a small portion were game designers

[@Toonlord27]

As a fan of overwatch since the beginning this is heartbreaking. It feels like they just ripped the soul out of the company with all the animators and story people going. The overwatch lore and world is incredible and I wish we could explore it more. There is so much they could have done with OW that never happened because of Bobby's meddling and now this too. It feels like microsoft came in and just went "Oh you guys are hopeful for the future? Let me take care of that real quick!"

[@WilliamLucian]

Microsoft still has share holders and will always chase profit. They just spent billions.

[@rain_mendoza2000]

I may have the wrong person in mind but I don't care about the lead narrative, fucking weirdo

[@wookieninja8794]

Disingenuous comment. OW1 was made by an almost completely different team than what just got laid off. My thing is that I absolutely loved OW1 but OW2.....well it's currently installed from my PC and I haven't played in about 3+ months. I used to play 4-6+ hours with friends per day to 1-2 matches with no friends every few days. In my opinion they did a real shit job at managing the game and deserved to be let go.

[@capten272]

you do not realise that pve and lore is not a the forfront. they spent 4 years on pve and we got nothing, the lore is fun and games but a bad game with a good lore is not a successfull game. blizzard now doesn t have to pay half their employees for some shit story missions and can put more budget and people to work on the actual game. I would much rather them actually make the game fun again without any lore than having the best lore with the current state of the game. if you want lore there are plenty of books you can read other than overwatch.The only way for ow to be saved is to restructure the entire company

[@meat.]

@@wookieninja8794 well said. It’s rich seeing all these bleeding hearts for the people responsible for delivering to us the slop that is ow2…

[@arpo_marxx]

They need to release all the archive missions for free on the Missions tab.

[@jayyemm69]

The whole point of ow2 was to create the shop/battle system. PVE was just going to be there to justify it. They couldn't get their shit together in time, but still shut down OW1 servers to start pumping in the money. The greed was their downfall. It's sad though that the people who weren't responsible for that call are being laid off.

[@rayku22]

Its always like this, its the lower levels that get fucked, the higher ups and execs shit untouched.....

[@BunPrince]

the greedy people arent being laid off but the creatives are, what a sad fucking world we live in

[@hakaishin7859]

You actually PvE was ever a thing? Lol high chance it was a total fabrication to get idiots on OW2. Aka there was never a PvE mode. It was all a lie from the beginning. The community/sheeple got played big time lol

[@altosforteaquax5083]

​​@@hakaishin7859Your evidence? 😅😅😅asking like you have anything concrete.

[@AzureRoxe]

@@altosforteaquax5083 The evidence is simple, the PvE they added was just 3 missions, 1 of which was done in 2019 AT BLIZZCON and with items. It's clear they did nothing for all that time because it's legit impossible for them to have only done 2 more missions in 3 years.

[@Hermitree]

I work in tech - worked hard on something for two years and had it just be canned without any ceremony and it left me utterly numb. Can’t imagine what it would be like to do the same but for 5-6 years. Heartbreaking

[@yojuei]

my god... what made me fall in love with game art and overwatch specifically were these artists and theyre just getting thrown out with no consideration... my heart goes out to anyone affected by the lay offs.

[@TheLastEgg08]

Most of these artists are not the same from 2016 and 2017 onwards. While it’s sad that they got laid off without prior notice and so easily like that but they’re not the same devs.

[@Solus793]

It's just business.

[@depressedonion5610]

I wonder if Microsoft saw how poorly received the PvE missions were and just decided to cut them completely. That whole aspect of OW2 failed and what's the point of spending the money on them when a majority of players didn't like it.

[@pippo17173]

Its gonna be years till we see if overwatch will go the 343 route with how halo is doing. Only time will tell.

[@MrFancyFresh]

Well it wouldn’t have been poorly received if fucking Activision didn’t come in and gut the entirety of the mode before release.

[@Xport9]

@@MrFancyFresh Don't forget, one team has to work on BOTH. Activision couldn't be bothered to damn make a second team with all the resources they had for the PvE side of things.

[@MrFancyFresh]

@@Xport9 Exactly! As a huge fan of Overwatch since 2016, I’ve never seen such a cascade of fumbles from a game in my life. And I’m an OG Halo fan. So go figure how bad THIS is. Modern gaming is just depressing

[@Nayutune]

These two above are cooking, Love it.

[@yrenekurtz5268]

How do you kill something that was never alive?

[@samesameallthesame9530]

That hits hard man

[@asswhip]

You make it Turbo Dead

[@vaepuer2290]

abortions

[@Fictvision7]

Facts

[@JohnIvoryMusic]

Undead

[@Yourhomeboy_evan]

At this point I’m waiting for OW to shutdown I hate hate hate what they’ve done to this once amazing game.

[@kuilu]

Yup, they're just shitting and pissing on the still burning corpse.

[@mickeyspanish9709]

I'd be fine with lack of PVE and rampant monetization (as I ain't buying no 20 dollar skin)....IF they had focused all that time and money into balance and improvements, but this season is probably the least fun I've ever had with this game. First with unkillable mauga, and now I can barely get a ranked match (I'm plat 2) without a high diamond or masters that just rolls us, and it seems like trolls went crazy lately.

[@LightWavess]

Shutting this game would create a small riot at this point 😂

[@Xport9]

@@LightWavess I mean, look what happened to WoW in China. Everyone got angry a single night, and now, no one seemed to remember it as if it was just a fart on the wind.

[@charlestonjew7587]

Exactly. People act like OW2 was great or something and this is some big gut punch. The game's been dead since 2018. OW2 was just a zombie parasite, leaching hopeful suckers for everything they could before laying off what little staff the game had to begin with.

[@SpiderElm]

To touch on what you said about Tech Artists. I am a tech artist and as you said we do kind of have knowlege of both aspects of game dev, art and programming. And we usually handle technical parts of asset creation/ animation etc. Things like rigging, skinning, weighting. All technical aspects related to making the art assets/translating them into engine come under our domain.

[@Desgaroth]

So Artists create the Character and you teach them how to walk?

[@SpiderElm]

@@Desgaroth You could say that. We make sure that the animations that the animation team creates are working properly with the characters that the character team creates. So its usually a lot of problem solving and bug fixing that is generally out of an artist's domain

[@Enkeria]

PVE was never alive.. Vs AI was the ONE thing I kept coming back to in first overwatch. And when 2nd came, I bought skins in hope to use them in the dedicated PVE. Yeah, sucks to be me right? Hope SOME company out there can make a good PVE shooter like Overwatch could've been. Edit: A whole big dev team that allows to make a game based out of Greed is not a passion project, its part of a problem.

[@craigdodson6680]

Bobby's Golden Parachute paid for in the Salary of Innocents. Truly he was some sort of Demon.

[@nathancarpenter8895]

We need a modern day Robin Hood.

[@torbjornkallstrom2316]

Imagine if Blizzard had just kept supporting OW throughout the years all the way from the beginning and put a dedicated team on making an OW co-op shooter that was independent of the multiplayer game. It sold for 60$, had a 20 hour campaign that told a cool story in the OW universe. It's almost as if that had made more sense than whatever it was they did instead...

[@SteelDawn7]

Kotick got in the way of development so much. He was putting the dev team on so many stupid projects and then turning around, telling them to scrap it. It wasted YEARS of potential development for any possible PVE, but they got their cash shop and downgraded system where players are FORCED to pay for cosmetics, instead of being able to level up and save up to get them...

[@drbjr8223]

they wanted the zombie zoomer f2p money, pretty simple, they sold out.

[@PyroCyce]

"bUt MiCrOsOfT wIlL sAvE oVeRwAtCh" SYKE smh this company was doomed the second they left us out to dry for years to create Microtransaction 2

[@kuilu]

It was doomed ages before that, around the time activision came in back in 2013 or what it was, that's when the cash-shop shit started to trickle in and gamedesign came second.

[@robertwhisenhunt8740]

We've heard "we were working on some great stuff" before, I have SERIOUS doubt they work on anything other than skins.

[@joegarrison5911]

For real. Where is all this great stuff that's been promised?

[@jkvltra804]

lol trueee. I don't like seeing people lose their jobs but the pve team coming up with "great stuff" is absolute cap.

[@emonggtv]

you know the main dev team dont make skins right ? they produce the concept then outsource them to a company in Germany You dont get to see whatever the hell team 4 created was because Bobby Cockdick scrapped them all

[@DasOmen02]

I ended up quitting OW and uninstalling like right before the layoffs were announced, and I'm glad i have tbh. This has been probably the most catastrophic death of a video game I've ever seen. From the pinnacle to the pit, so to speak

[@MilkshakeGuruTTV]

Except everything that's been successful about the franchise since day one is still receiving nothing but love. But sure. The game is "dead". lmao

[@DasOmen02]

@@MilkshakeGuruTTV i understand the desire to keep hold of this, and I'd love to be proven wrong and for this game to blossom, but as someone who's been playing since s3 ow1 i really don't have much hope. Do i think the game will ever shut down? Maybe not - that's uncommon with AAA games - but the game isn't what it used to be, and it's only been sinking further. Again, i hope you're right and I'm wrong. Overwatch is one of my favorite fps games of all time. I just kinda doubt it atp

[@MilkshakeGuruTTV]

I've been in the OW community since 2 closed betas. The PvP side has received nothing but love in my eyes. You just have the typical Doomer mental state everyone seems to have about everything nowa days. My advice is go outside. Ignore media and YT for a while. Come back. You will see its fine lol. I learned I liked EVERY online video game experience better when i wasn't living ina bubble talking about it 24/7. Everyone online in the comments is negative nancies. The people happy to play are ...well busy playing so they dont have time to find comment sections and be doomers. @@DasOmen02

[@jacobruiter592]

​@@MilkshakeGuruTTVI was a day one player of Overwatch 1, and adored this franchise. This Franchise is DEAD, executives murdered it. Sorry, but this game has been dying a slow death.

[@MilkshakeGuruTTV]

Based on what metric other than your gut feeling? The game going F2P tripled it's concurrent player base just because of that model alone making it easier for people to jump in. The PvP (The literal main focus of the game) has had nothing but steady/frequent updates since OW1 updated into OW2. One could argue the PvE was it's greatest failing. But the PvP scene has received nothing but changes for the better. By the boatloads. @@jacobruiter592

[@TotalTomoko]

did no one see this coming? it was a huge merger of a company with well known management issues and lots of other issues with their games, so ofc the new company would like to get a new start.

[@lancefisher8358]

1900 employees is still a lot to just be laid off overnight

[@TotalTomoko]

@@lancefisher8358 yea that's true too

[@RaidenKunii]

But the issue is that they laid off all the good people and not the bad ones??

[@linusgustafsson2629]

@@lancefisher8358Feels like a lot if I think blizzard, not so many if I think activision.

[@TheHellsingHQ]

​@@RaidenKuniiand you know all of these 1900 people and how good they are? Stop assuming and just look at the facts. These people could be "good" but not good at the job. Companies look for profit, hard work, bringing in consumers not pushing them away. Could there be some actually good hardworking people that this had impacted? Sure. But, welcome to capitalism.

[@reagansido5823]

Why am I not surprised that in the face of all this, their president would say he's gonna travel the world.

[@novelgiani]

They most likely laid off the people with high wages and replaced them with people who have lower wages, and probably sacked the PvE and Event Department because they weren't making much profit. Sad to see that they thought those were the right people to lay off, if any.

[@lancefisher8358]

One guy got laid off after moving to California and only 4 months of working there

[@novelgiani]

@lancefisher8358 After moving to Cali is so shitty, considering the crazy living costs.

[@ghoulbuster1]

nah that's not how it works. You fire the most useless employees first, not the most expensive. Blizzard is just filled with useless people.

[@linusgustafsson2629]

I'm confused microsoft cares about profits to begin with. They are so big they could easily just make a few niche games that get big with a small audience.

[@novelgiani]

@@linusgustafsson2629 One word: Shareholders.

[@cliftonhare116]

I can't imagine being ripped from a job that you love and put hard work into every day. As someone aspiring to be in game development that's really terrifying.

[@Dmanbradley]

I'd recommend avoiding game development if possible. These layoffs are far from rare in gaming. It's like playing the lottery on whether you can build something popular that you can be proud of. And even if you do (e.g. $1 billion Overwatch) you can still get laid off at any time if the rest of the company messes up the marketing. If you are getting a computer science degree, look for a job in a company making a stable product if you want stable employment. I've survived massive layoffs twice at two separate companies, so it happens in tech jobs in general depending on the market. But that was over about 12 years. Blizzard, alone, has had 2 sets of massive layoffs in 6 years. I'd only get into the gaming space if you have a good safety net already in place and you want to do it as a lifelong passion - not to pay the bills.

[@majorshepard2]

They are common because a big portion are part time employees. If a game ends where you were hired for your contract ends(get fired). Just make yourself rare, work hard and don't be useless. There is a reason 50% of artists are laid off if they did one map per year and no new hero in the last 3 years because all the new heroes were made in ow1 timespan when they said they withhold the content for ow2.

[@majorshepard2]

​@@Dmanbradley1 billion was in the first year. This thinking is the problem why do is going down the shitter. If people make trash work they should get fired. Bad workers should get fired and they are well to protected in the gaming industry. It's not the ceo that tell them to fuck up the balance, or the level design, or make heroes like kiriko that are broken and harm the game, or shit pve design. If they had more for pve they would not have canceled it. Same we see now with the survival game. You defend trash devs that can't do their job, because they are incompetent.

[@Dmanbradley]

@@majorshepard2 The directors and up choose what the devs work on, and I suspect they had their hands in the balance decisions for to manipulate OWL viewership. For example, Brig was added to counter OWL Level Tracers. The average player didn't have any issue with her because she took so much skill to leverage. This game screams "bad management". The artwork, net code, etc. that the devs control were mostly seen as some of the best in the business.

[@majorshepard2]

@@Dmanbradley then why is the ow2 balance so trash when there is no pro league and no Bobby? Even if brig was added because of owl, the balance team decided to make her kit like that and did not think this would break the game? Everyone knew this, only the devs did not and I highly doubt that the ceos sit there and decide how much an ability heals and how much damage something does.

[@vicaslan]

The fun fact was, almost no one saying OW2, they referring to Overwatch, not OW2

[@evan2623]

Ow2 is basically just Overwatch since Ow1 is not existent

[@yum-in3vp]

yeah maybe because its the same garbage game

[@tomwallen7271]

Inside Blizzard, they talk about these things as properties. "WoW team, OW team, Diablo team, Hearthstone team". They just don't distinguish between the titles.

[@chrismaghintay]

​@@tomwallen7271 they should just call it Overwatch kinda like how COD has a launcher for multiple games

[@vicaslan]

@@tomwallen7271 Good insight, thank you

[@erikapaschold6193]

Thank you for highlighting that this is about C-suite executives and other leadership making shitty decisions out of greed. The CEO made what, $375 million last year? And the company had nearly $600 million in profit? These layoffs were cruel and unnecessary.

[@johnmorris1378]

It's getting tougher and tougher for me to support overwatch not only did they make attempts to ruin a game beloved by myself and the community. Now literally ruining the lives of those that created the ONLY FPS to receive GAME OF THE YEAR. While the devs were trying to deliver the promise made to its fans canned by the executives of blizzard some who don't work there anymore *cough Bobby* I'm sad to see so many laid off wish them all a bright future and the best of luck, I'll play your games you amazing souls

[@squidrecluse2336]

I've never been into multiplayer PvP, but the world, characters, and lore of Overwatch drew me in despite that. I've played thousands of hours of gameplay I don't like for a game world I love. When the PvE missions came out it gave me so much hope. They weren't perfect, or everything the devs hoped it would be, but it was still a lot of fun, and I was really interested in where the story was going. This just shatters any fleeting hope I had left. I can't keep spending my time hoping this game will someday live up to it's full potential. Best of luck to everyone sticking with it, but I'm done.

[@Mikuroko69]

The only good thing OW had going for them really, was the connection between the devs and the fans. The way they interact and talk to us. Everytime the group podcast was streaming Gavin was in chat most the time correcting misconceptions and such. Seeing gavin and monika as well as many artists/animators get let go is just horrible.

[@KeanuChrist]

The Overwatch cinematics are part of this game. The reason why I play this game is because of the characters they introduced in those shorts. At least Valorant still does shorts for their game.

[@chriszethird]

I remember very well my first introduction to Overwatch: its cinematics. Between 2015/16 and 2019 I just kept watching the cinematics over and over again. Until the day I finally got my hands on the game. Felt like that one minecraft map I was playing on in 2010. Such a unique feeling. And today, it's unphasing. We can't get anything to connect with the characters or even the maps. It's too fast, and the few content we get is either paywalled or simply boring/disappointing/boring (e.g last Hunt event). What's left of the original spirit? Well not even the artists now. What to expect from future microsoft management. Rather than leaving a mark, and a unique amazing game, they just want money, easily and fast. I'm glad I'm not spending a penny on the game thanks to microsoft rewards, I can buy 3 battlepasses for free now. But every day, I wonder why is it still worth playing the game I have cherished for so long? Why bother grinding comp trying to finally hit Masters after so many years? There might be a day where I'll just stop playing all together and I think it will be a sad day.

[@ClaythePokeChamp]

its not good to do mass lay-offs, not only does it let go of good people but it will also lower the morale of the people still employed, wondering if they are going to be on the chopping block on the next round of lay-offs. This will ultimately lead them to make worst products because of stress. CEOs need to take paycuts, the former CEO of blizzard made 375 million last year, this isnt just.

[@javerious24]

i think its great you showcased all these devs and putting their names out there

[@SonicOW755]

this is the problem with EXTREMELY big companies like microsoft owning half the damn video game companies, too much overlapping positions to the point where they just let them go and source other artists from either other games or whole companies to do the job. especially if they can pay them less because they weren't forced to be based in Irvine, an extremely expensive part of California and demanded higher wages to live in.

[@tarmie7]

How is it legal to just fire people like that? As a non USamerican, I can't even fathom companies being able to lay off people from one day to another without reason like that! My heart goes out to the human being who are now jobless in a country with basically no safety net, and especially those on a work visa.

[@kinjiru731]

If they're only going to keep people that can work on PvP and cosmetics to sell, and also not substantially change their monetization, I'll be calling it quits on OW2 after being around since the start of OW1.

[@kuilu]

Took you long enough.

[@MilkshakeGuruTTV]

Monetization is still better than loot boxes and yall coping over it.

[@kinjiru731]

​@@MilkshakeGuruTTV I got every item available out of loot boxes and had over 100,000 coins to buy things with in OW1 left over and I never once spent any money on loot boxes. No, loot boxes were not worse.

[@kuilu]

@@MilkshakeGuruTTV How about neither? Atleast with OW1's lootboxes i had just about all skins from playing the game, now you want me to dump money on battlepasses and skins? Fuck your silly comment.

[@InsomniacUN]

@@MilkshakeGuruTTV Not in OW's case.

[@h_haz]

im not even gonna lie, i am genuinely terrified for the future of the game, right as the future looked bright, this happened. I also feel so sorry for the people who got fired for no good reason. why did they actually do the layoffs anyways? i want to try stay as optimistic as possible, but its hard because this really bothers me for the future of overwatch, and what the people who got laid off must feel.

[@DviousDingle]

Usually its the merger event of two big companies. Many roles start to overlap and unfortunately just having too many people of the same role is very hard to manage even as a billion dollar company. What I hope that microsoft did was actually lay off the redundant ones mainly. Lay offs are hard but that is unfortunately very common with merger events

[@beanjuice6012]

Nah overwatch isnt an mmo. No point of having that many artist. But i do feel for the ones that been there for 5+ years.

[@h_haz]

@@DviousDingle thank you for explaining

[@h_haz]

@@beanjuice6012 true, but as stylosa said, the art and the animations and the lore are huge parts of the game, and really bring it to life

[@beanjuice6012]

@@h_haz yeah true

[@omgbutterbee7978]

My heart goes out to all of the affected and those left behind. I went through this at a previous job. I survived 7 rounds of layoffs over 3 years and every single time you don't know if you're going to be next. Especially when they are letting go people who are performing above and beyond. Living through that takes a toll on your mental health.

[@dylanwolff741]

I don't trust anyone who unironically uses the term "hyper-growth"

[@RiderZer0]

Yeah it sounds real crypto bro-y to me

[@InkedCat]

Not surprised by boost selling Ybarra.

[@ccricers]

Same with "growth hacking"

[@MiseryRG]

07:03 "The developers are only implementing the plans that have been put in place by the management." This can only be true for business models in gaming. Management decided OW2 should be F2P instead of a box product. Management decided OW2 needed an overly priced skin shop. I believe this. But the balance of the game, the decision on how in-game mechanics work is left entirely to the developers. Unless anyone is going to convince me Bobby Kotick was an avid Overwatch player and developer and he decided on the move to 5v5? He decided on the Doomfist, Bastion and Orisa rework? He decided to give supports to much DPS potential? He decided tanks shouldn't feel like tanks, instead feel like big DPS heroes?

[@joegarrison5911]

Exactly, how are you going to blame Bobby for the horrible matchmaking, Balance, horribly designed characters, etc etc They want to use that guy as a scapegoat, but there's plenty of blame to go around.

[@calibrated692]

This sounds like sensationalism at this point. Being laid off sucks but it’s pretty standard practice. It seems as though blizz had a lot of extra to trim off anyway. Place sounds more like high school kids graduating, “I love you all, I’ll miss you”, instead of a work place. I mean really, how many of you would leave your job tomorrow and be like “I’ll miss everyone so much and cherish my time there”? I’m all for positivity in the work place but it also sounded like a daycare after the 2021 fiasco

[@SoraTheKobold]

this entire situation is awful, so many talented people losing their jobs due to yet again corporate greed at the top level the only thing i hope maybe comes from this is a rise in indie developers who were past blizzard devs

[@xCotten]

It’s so crazy to me because I’ve been CRAVING a Borderlands-esque skill tree to mix things up in OW. I’d be happy to pay $30-60 for an OW PVE as such. Honestly a missed opportunity in my opinion, but I’m a consumer, not an analyst so wtf do I know

[@jacobruiter592]

I was actually looking forward to the story mode, so was my wife. The magic died once the story mode died...which was even before the launch of Overwatch 2.

[@Helibum1]

Why did I even get my hopes up when Microsoft bought Blizzard? As much as it pains me to say, maybe it‘s time the game dies for good, instead of being crushed again and again But the devs do not deserve this. They are the reason I was so excited by the OW1 launch and even managed to stay somewhat engaged during the tougher times I hope everyone finds a new job soon and is able to process this tragedy Thanks for your dedication, your hard work and all the good times!

[@Cindoreye]

PvE was the only thing that would have brought me back to OW, so personally this sucks. I'd also guess the gutting of PvE was why Jeff left in the first place. I would like to add, the track record of these developers has not been great in recent years (though the art teams have always been great in main Blizz games). However, everything in recent years, has always couched as it's going to be better "in the future" (copium as I see it). Now we see constant refrains of "Great Teams", "Awesome Projects", "Incredible Developers", "Proud of our Team/Game/Work", etc. If that was really the case, why weren't the last 10 patches/expansions/additions/events good? If all these people were working with as passionate, engaged, and effective teams, than they might have the right mindset, but no actual ability to go with it. You don't get paid for how hard you work, but for the value of that work. Moving a pile of bricks from one side of a yard to the other is hard work, but it is isn't valuable. OW's success was built entirely out of its original cast and gameplay. That was the passion and skill that created a blockbuster game. Where has that level of competency been demonstrated to be in the last few years of continued development? Sure corporate interference plays a part (a bigger part with certain games obviously), but a good chef can create a decent meal, even if corporate may limit their ingredient options. All the crappy monetization would be stomachable, if the games were excellent. They have not been. "[Fired] through no fault of their own"? -- Make a good game. Regardless, no one like to see hardworking and dedicated people being fired and I wish them the best of luck moving forward. Maybe they can escape CA and that crazy high cost of living.

[@aguevarenromero-palominos8391]

This developers should band together and make their own studio. I know money is the issue but I hope someone from this team makes a group and makes some awesome games

[@magicplacebo2143]

Not the same team that made overwatch 1 stop clouting for crap

[@rockleesmile]

Hey guys, wait till you find out what has to happen next year so the shareholder prices can keep growing. Every year must beat the year before at any cost. The company is literally legally mandated to do anything it can to bring in shareholder value.

[@DuduMaroja]

Never was expecting more of it, it was absolutr trash what they released, the only thing I will miss was my time wasted waiting for something meaningful after echo release. I never notice we where playing with a corpse

[@mightymasochist]

and this should be a reminder to those who say "the microtransactions help fund the game" that no. most of that money goes to the higher ups and execs, and share holders. the devs don´t see the VAST majority of the macrotransaction money.

[@BlaizeTheDragon]

To be precise it helps fund the higher ups lifestyle. Those fancy big houses and sports cars aren't gonna pay for themselves you know.

[@tylerbelanger5904]

can OW just shut down already... its probably one of the biggest AAA game blunders ever. amazing potential, 10s of millions of players, amazing skins and team. OWL and all the tournaments... to, what we have now is a travesty. I love OW but its the most untrustworthy game ive EVER played, gaming 25 years now and not a single good promise the OW team gave to us actually happened. always the opposite.

[@symbolitical4158]

I'm sure team shooters will have it's day again - probably gonna have to wait for Team Fortress 3 if it ever comes out

[@Nayutune]

If we are planning to keep going in this dumb direction with OW2 - I wish it was just possible to reset to OW1 or make it accessible again.. Although I don't know how it would feel knowing so much talent isn't there to support the game anymore in some way.

[@S3nCh4n]

There are no AI models for making anything 3D/animation related (yet), so those Artists, animators and environment artists are not being replaced by AI. I don't know anything about VFX though. All i can say is they are a very capable team and would do really well in other indie/AA companies or could even start their own. AAA is honestly not sustainable given the huge investments needed

[@joegarrison5911]

The PVE team deserved the axe. All that time spent, all the resources devoted to it, all the hype for it, only for 3 lackluster archive missions. Sorry about your dream jobs but at my company if i underperformed to that extent id be out the door too.

[@frosty4894]

I think they should make a netflix series instead of the PVE because PVE just doesn't want to work. The layoffs have been devastating and the original vision of PVE was great but literally everything that could of went bad, went bad. You know the meme with Titan from Megamind with "we're free", "Nah, more like under new management". If they just can't get the lore out trough PVE maybe they could do a netflix show with cinematic quality. It would be great to see. Dreams... it's all dreams. I'm getting worried about the future of blizz games.

[@Nayutune]

We wouldn't be in this mess in the first place if Activision's management didn't milk the company to the bones. They were working on the PvE, but I bet the management made a call to release it sooner. I know the devs didn't call that decision - because a lot of what the devs actually wanted to achieve with OW2 (keeping ow1 servers alive as well as making sure that core 6v6 design stays) never happened, despite them getting to state those intentions publicly.

[@SirReasoner]

2 things 1. I am so grateful you shared people’s tweets and humanised them to the world. These are people who are being targeted and should not go through this. The companies making profits and they are suffering. 2. A tech artist is someone who builds tools FOR the artists, not artists themselves ^_^

[@Emeraldym]

Ill be completely honest. I dont care about PVE not being made anymore. i felt that way already. I DO care about these people and the difficult situation theyve all been put in.

[@Tatrick94]

Yeah, I care more about the content that was promised and wasnt delivered

[@addictedow9551]

I appreciate you going through and showing numerous of these people. These are real people and jobs and as much as people like to complain to devs this is not that day. I worry this is the beginning of the end for overwatch's current path though. we have been promised consistent cosmetics,maps,pve mission and heroes every few seasons but that was under the pretense of the sizes of each team internally at the time. With these layoffs i wonder will we hear from Aaron on how this changes things.

[@lcdcac]

Jeff was so smart leaving when he did. Dude saw all this coming and walked out clean.

[@neguikun]

Hope for a game company to take the opportunity of hiring all of this talented people and make a better version of overwatch

[@ShadowSnowLeopard95]

Starting to look like Overwatch 2 might get shut down altogether and tbh it'd probably be for the best. They have never executed well after release Overwatch 1. No PvE, continuous balance problems, increasingly aggressive monetizations, and very little innovation, no story, no nothing. I think Jeff Kaplan (despite some of his flaws) said it best "dare to see the world for what it could be." Overwatch had so much potential for story, world-building and characters but it will never happen because $$$

[@randomguy-yl2ml]

Goddamn this is upsetting, things were looking up finally with microsoft, thank you stylosa for covering this situation, as I don't have twitter I wouldn't have known about any of this

[@owowho]

A reminder that AI generated art only works based off of the millions of artists work crammed into it without their knowledge or consent to pump out a mashed up version- putting people out of a following or career. Instead of using AI to enhance and push our talented artists further, we've stepped on them, spat on their work, and reminded them what we think of their worth all so we can consume chewed up spit. (Also wanted to say thank you for giving this situation compassion stylosa 👍)

[@Triforce9426]

There's not a single person on the planet that's playing the Invasion missions that came a couple seasons ago. They feel like such wasted effort.

[@Splashbang_OW]

1: PVE was massively scaled way, waaay back, before Microsoft acquired ABK. 2: A lot of the people who got laid off were independent contractors. 3: While it's sad, when looking at the bad state the game was in and currently is in, it might not be as bad as some people make it out to be. 8:05 No. That is not the reason for the lay offs. The reason is to prevent redundant positions aka overlapping positions. If the reason was that Overwatch 2 didn't perform to task, they would've let the entire management team go, Neuss and Keller included earlier, as they're responsible for how well the game performs and responsible for delegating tasks to the rest of the dev team. They're the literal decision makers for the team, in anything they do. Obviously, they might look into replacing them soon, either way, because nobody wants managers who keep driving a product into the mud on a consistent basis.

[@jadeyjadey8172]

I agree. The only thing that really hurts me is the animator for the cinamatic that got laid off. Other than that I really hope they go in the right direction OW is my dead child that I still continue to hold because it's a game I'm passionate about and I'm just trying to keep it together and stay optimistic and hopeful.

[@bui3415]

Well it's not like the acquisition was sudden, they could have seen it coming and prepared for it. Bobby came in and told them to change it too as keep in mind the lead developers left in 2019 over differences and suddenly we got this F2P model no one really asked for.

[@Splashbang_OW]

@@jadeyjadey8172 Yes, there are definitely some i would've prefered if Microsoft didn't lay off, but it is what it is. Still sad to see content creators and gaming media blowing this way out of proportions by labeling Microsoft as the big bad villain.

[@xlbthedemigod5662]

This a lot to process. I just want more stories from the PvE

[@darthgigglez1461]

I am so sorry for the people impacted by this. I know from experience as an artist, working your butt off to make art, making connections, and get a job at your dream company only to be let go is brutal. It is incredibly hard to get a job as a creative in this day and I hope they can find great jobs soon. But I suppose there was bound to be some changes made by Microsoft, unfortunately it has to impact so many talented people.

[@Yukeena]

Overwatch 2 makes a good amount of money and Activision as a whole is making so much money, but then so many workers get laid off? What in the heck is going on? This is bullshit

[@twpsyn]

overwatch fans or guts: who has suffered more?

[@PhunnyConflicts]

@8:00 he is correct. look at what EA did to the Dead Space franchise. The push for microtransaction hindered the game so much, and at the end, EA blamed Visceral for the "poor" sells, when in fact, it was EA who shaped how the end product was.

[@ranjnijan3446]

So they killed PvE and now they killed the possibility of story missions containing proper lore. Double kill!

[@jerod256]

I've worked in corporations my entire adult life. Keeping your job has little to do with your own performance. It's always a financial decision of whether the company wants to retain the capability or output of that worker. Anyone who says those people needed to go don't know a goddamn thing.

[@speedysloth203]

OH MY FUCKING GOD IM SO DONE. It’s been YEARS on end I’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for something to come from this game. I love OW but it’s officially fucking dead. Sadly and very poorly. All I have is despair, pain, and anger. The game we all knew is gone

[@alexanderwagner2580]

I mean it's obviously very sad that so many lost their jobs, but like you said, the product was horrible. The PvE sucked, the balance is terrible, and they didn't have nearly enough content. Microsoft took over and trimmed the fat that wasn't producing enough results. In all likelihood it was the execs and not the devs, but the end result is not good enough. They will likely only leave a skeleton crew to keep the game afloat while they outsource and reuse new items for the shop. It's the only thing that has consistently worked

[@clashingimages]

My god the cope. OW has been on life support and the cash shop for 6 some years now. The devs are 50% of the blame no matter what. Pal world, baulder's gate, Elden ring, etc are examples of games with half the budget these devs have had and produced outstanding games. Old bliz games used to be produced like that. The devs/ community were so obsessed with what characters are gay etc instead of just make a damn game. You can be muted in game for just saying GG after every match. Sorry but I am not sorry. Hell the devs couldnt even take the time to put in a group finder that they had from OW1. People complaining about the layoffs are coping so damn hard. Maybe we will get some actual progress in the game now.

[@rockleesmile]

You're seriously putting Palworld next to Elden Ring in this? A "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" assembly of game systems and ideas from various sources released into early access? People need to learn that money made does not equal quality or longevity.

[@nakano8412]

Overwatch in particular left the golden age by 2018/2019. Overwatch 2 have only been a cash grab and failing to deliver on any of it's promises. This really doesn't change anything for the game itself, but this is awful for those who worked at the company, honestly inhumane.

[@ravennoir7474]

So Microsoft comes in, probably saw the training maps and said "you need this many artists for this??" Fucking unbelievable.

[@TheAlreadybeentaken]

and that many writers

[@MIKEx2112]

Thats exactly what happened......Way too many diversity hires and they had to go. And all these tweets they are making sounds like a bunch of bluehaired crybabies that lost the 1st job they ever had....Which is more than likely....True

[@pspppe]

AI was initially speculated to remove remedial tasks from human workforces leaving humans with the freedom and creativity to make the art and experiences that only humans can create. Now it feels like the opposite seeing all these artists get fired while the remedial jobs remain.

[@jason23189]

No technological advancement in human history has resulted in the working class benefiting. The purpose is, and always will be to increase corporate profits while we live under capitalism. The working class now works more than any other time in history... and for less money.

[@jonahp1127]

It’s so sad and stupid: community tells Blizzard they’re looking forward to PvE, Blizzard doesn’t do what the community asks and fires the people capable of doing what the community wanted. Terrible business leadership. So out of touch with the consumers and their own employees. Just find out what gamers actually want and devote resources to fulfill the consumers’ desires. It’s entrepreneurship 101.

[@rezq9109]

they literally did with rammatra season, am I tripping or this whole comment section has amnesia about what piece of crаp these pve devs did?

[@vse7327]

It was bobbys fault for the pve yknow

[@verdant1029]

*Microsoft*

[@leftoverpizzza3337]

That doesn’t make money tho. Why put effort into making the community happy when they could do jack shit and sell overpriced skins to idiots and whales

[@riptyurass302]

Why are people surprised the PVE team got sacked, I’m surprised they even have a PVE team considering that Blizzard already said they won’t be doing PVE going forward.

[@dwoodward931]

I've played Overwatch since open beta 2016. I am willing to bet I have a combined hours of 15k or more between all accounts. I've finally 100% moved on from the game full stop. 6v6 was always better, the demise of the projects and change in direction overall in OW2 has just turned me off so badly on this game these days I haven't hardly touched it at all.

[@joegarrison5911]

Ok see you next week

[@jaydendavis129]

This is truly upsetting. The PvP state of the game right now is not fun or viable in the long run. There's really nothing to look forward to in the game anymore in terms of longevity, besides a cool collab maybe once or twice this year. Big RIP

[@guillaume6459]

So Thanos is real? like snap your fingers and half of a section is gone...

[@tm45697]

The development focused on the wrong aspects if they ignored hero mastery and focused on pve they would still be hired at blizzard and Microsoft.

[@KirbyGamingLive]

How did this small indie company have so many employees 😮

[@CanadianCat101]

Who wants to help me pull a Johnny Silverhand and zero some corpo suits?

[@gerharddamm5933]

So we’re not getting PvE mission packs anymore?

[@Wolfy_6414]

If that is true, then that is a joke!

[@christophersmith8848]

Never were, Blizzard strung everyone along with that lie for years

[@kalebnolan8343]

Honestly is it that big of a loss?

[@joegarrison5911]

​@christophersmith8848 And they keep falling for it. Aaron Keller could come out tomorrow and say "we still have some great PVE stuff on the way!" And they'd all believe it.

[@deceiver444]

​@@joegarrison5911how long it takes for some people to awake from slumber 😅

[@imfamouswarrior2976]

Diablo event was sneak peek of something sick to come and if they added special abilities to the PvE missions Id actually be willing to pay for it. RIP to that.

[@technonut9821]

Before we were beat up Now we were just kicked in the nuts

[@st.paddymad7085]

I heard that Gavin lead narrative is also gone. I'm glad to hear that coz he wanted to force Pharmercy down our throats while retconning any evidence of Gency ever existing, all in order to appease the Twitter Stans. Even if I stopped playing Overwatch almost 8 months ago, I still feel the burn of that betrayal, so I have a lot of smack-talk to do. Sty, I humbly recommend you can do vids for better games, I believe in you, brother.

[@shaneh3109]

They killed the potentially best shooter ever made. I'm so beyond pissed over never came.

[@MIKEx2112]

Bro…. Game has been ruined for years.. where you been??

[@shaneh3109]

@@MIKEx2112 Im aware. But think of how awesome the game they showed off in 2021 would've been.

[@jluzin]

Blizzard hasn't produced anything positive in years. About time they cleaned house.

[@thirtyacres7504]

Players: How do you kill something twice? Blizzard: I'll show you how

[@NotPako]

Why are we still harping on this? It sucks but it's nothing new in corporate America or the gaming industry. Companies are almost always guaranteed to be downsizes when bought by another entity. This is why I was never about the purchase and pushing my senator to block it. If we had less politically ignorant people, then things like this would not happen or we would have better regulations.

[@happyboi7016]

Tbh I’d rather have them completely drop the PVE since it’s already pretty dead and instead use the story for a show/movie or something of the sort

[@onelongwordable]

11:31 that's a BOAT!!?!? I never really thought about what was even going on with that map....

[@Crkkyyt]

Thank God she's gone though she does not know how to make a good map

[@happycat4766]

If you take away the story of overwatch, you take away the life of it. I watched a ton of the animated shorts before I even knew overwatch was a game, I loved being introduced to new characters with amazing backstory or a purpose I could sympathize with. At this point I feel like overwatch only brings pain to the people around it, and it’s not even the games or developers fault.

[@mr.miscellaneous9144]

I saw this coming. The only reason i even believe those missions were put out to begin with was to soften the blow of losing the pve they promised. i dont believe they ever intended on continuing work on that stuff.

[@deceiver444]

My exact thoughts

[@madkiller2163]

The only question that I have is this; was there anyone on the inside, talking to MSFT heads, that was point to where the guillotine is going?

[@ClintonHuynh]

The way corporate layoffs work is that they hire a third party company to come in and review the importance of the role, critical knowledge, redundancy, and wage of each individual. The company is usually given a target to reach to have a final list, so those that make a low scoring is how they determine who to layoff. You aren't protected if you have seniority or connections to anyone since its a third party and the decision is objective rather than subjective.

[@killablue1279]

Also another reason it was so abrupt. Its always abrupt and unexpected in the corporate world. Sucks but its for security reasons. I survived a main company layoff just to kinda get layed off and hired under a contracting agency for the same job at the same company a few months later

[@lukasg4807]

@@ClintonHuynh How were these roles redundant though? There's no way blizzard can do as much as they did before with this many layoffs, and I would have assumed the point of a Microsoft aquisition would be to make stuff, not sit on a catalogue.

[@xtremescript]

I don't know why this is being dramatized. For one reason or another this team failed to bring meaningful PvE. They are getting axed. If you ask me - this is a smart business decision. They were given all the time in the world to make it happen and they cancelled it. They took OW1 with them too. What a trainwreck. No reason to keep these people around.

[@DeathRisiing]

I had a bad feeling about Xbox buying out the company from day 1 and everyone was all, "No, no, it'll be fiiine." This is fine to you? LEAD designers, LEAD animators and artists etc all being laid off is fine? This game used to have soul. Now it's just a husk. An overpriced, thoroughly underwhelming husk.

[@IHeart16Bit]

The game was doa, who cares about the state of it. People losing their jobs sucks. As does OW2.

[@ihavenonamek733]

Same thing I was saying when Disney was buying fox...