Summary
- Overwatch 2's live service format aims to bring consistent content releases through a seasonal format, though it occasionally struggles like other live service games.
- The regular addition of PvE missions to Overwatch 2 can help avoid content droughts, providing more appeal during the Seasons without new heroes. Ensuring consistent content releases and avoiding weak Seasons.
- In Seasons without a Hero, Blizzard can drop a batch of story missions alongside a PvP map, making the hero-free Seasons full of content.
Overwatch 2 has fully embraced the live service format, and the change has had a very noticeable impact on the hero shooter. The in-game shop prioritizes paid cosmetics, while a seasonal format brings battle passes and consistent content releases. However, those content drops have had their highs and lows thus far, with Season 5 being a low point and Season 6 being the best one yet. Intriguingly, though, another drought like Season 5 can be avoided if Blizzard leans into its newly added PvE missions.
Overwatch 2 is far from the only game to have seasons that feel like filler and lack content compared to the others. Diablo 4’s first season has been heavily controversial, for example, as Blizzard has prioritized bug fixes and balancing over new content. Call of Duty is consistently criticized for weak seasons by fans of certain modes, as something usually suffers, whether it be traditional 6v6 multiplayer, Zombies, or so on. Fortunately for Overwatch 2, the addition of PvE adds a new layer to the hero shooter, which can help ensure that even its “off” Seasons are filled with content.
Overwatch 2 Can Avoid Content Droughts By Fully Supporting PvP and PvE
Thus far, Overwatch 2 has embraced a predictable formula with its PvP content. Heroes will release every other Season, and in the Season where there is no Hero, a new map will release. While Overwatch 2 Season 5 broke that promise, as no new map was added, Blizzard has done a fine job of sticking to the release cycle with the other Seasons. Still, even when it is followed, the structure is not perfect.
There is no denying that Heroes are the biggest draw for Overwatch 2, so it is not surprising that the Seasons without them were met with the most complaints from players. While Season 3 did provide a new map called Antarctic Peninsula, the charm of its Penguins and “Fishing” mechanic wore off quite fast. Mastering a hero takes time and can keep fans invested for a full Season, but a new map simply does not have the same longevity, so Blizzard should strive to make the Hero-less Seasons more appealing.
This is where Overwatch 2’s PvE mode can come in handy. While Blizzard has said that fans are in for a long wait as far as more story missions are concerned, as no more will be added until 2024, it has added that this is so feedback about Invasion can be taken into consideration. Hopefully, the next batch of missions fixes complaints about repetition and a lack of replayability, and Blizzard can then start to release the missions at a more frequent pace. After all, it already has a perfect slot for mission drops.
Ideally, Overwatch 2’s "off" Season could be the new home for story mission releases. Even if it means players receive two missions instead of three, the extra bit of consistency would be a big help, as waiting multiple Seasons between mission drops is far from ideal. With this approach, Blizzard could completely avoid the live service struggle that is the occassional weak Season. In the Seasons without a new hero, players could receive new story missions as well as a fresh PvP map. Perhaps Blizzard could even hold onto an Event mission for later in the Season, similar to the upcoming Hero Mastery Missions, ensuring that the content is spread out instead of dropping all at once.
While it was certainly nice to have a huge content drop with Invasion, as it celebrated Overwatch 2 leaving early access and attracted many fans back to the hero shooter, saving up for one big content drop has its downsides. A mostly dead Season like Season 5 is not worth running just so that a Hero, mode, and PvE can all be dropped at once. A Hero is enough to make a Season interesting on its own, while the Seasons without them can benefit from going all-in on the other content types. If players always receive new PvE missions alongside a PvP map during the Seasons that lack new Heroes, then Overwatch 2 can fully avoid content droughts and find its groove as a live service title.
Overwatch 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.