Blizzard is reportedly working on Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4, and it wouldn’t be possible without canning the StarCraft FPS they have been developing for the past two years. Although there are no official announcements from Blizzard, Kotaku has some anonymous sources that are in the know about the dev’s plans.
Overwatch 2 To be Revealed at BlizzCon This Year
While axing a new game is some news we’d never be happy about, the good news is that Overwatch 2 is going to be revealed at BlizzCon 2019 in November.
Kotaku’s sources said that the sequel would also include a PvE mode that is somewhat similar to what we have in Left 4 Dead. It’s a great addition, considering many seasonal events in Overwatch include PvE game modes and they’re very popular.
Overwatch was developed after Blizzard cancelled the development of the MMORPG Titan (2013), and many of its assets were transferred to Overwatch – even Tracer who was based on a character class from Titan (the jumper), so we could say that Overwatch 2 might focus on continuing the PvE combat and go back to its roots, perhaps even borrowing some of the ideas from Titan.
Project Ares and An Unannounced Mobile Game Axed
The StarCraft first-person shooter cancelled to make Overwatch 2 possible was being under development since 2017 as an experiment. The Starcraft team wanted to see if they could use the Overwatch engine for a StarCraft inspired game. The project was called Ares and it was described by the sources to be “like Battlefield in the StarCraft universe.”
Even though the project was cancelled, nobody was laid off. The sources added that not only Ares was getting axed, but also an unannounced mobile project, and the reasons were so that the company could focus on Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2, both to appear at BlizzCon this year.
When the Time Is Right…
When Blizzard was asked to comment on the sources’ information, they sent Kotaku a long statement:
“We always make decisions about these things, regardless of the ultimate outcome or how things might be interpreted, based on our values, what we believe makes sense for Blizzard, and what we hope our players will enjoy the most,” the company said, adding that they’re “looking forward to revealing other things we’re working on when the time is right.” (entire statement in the link above)
While making a new game is great, what about the current Overwatch? Will players want to migrate to a new version and leave behind a game in which they’ve invested a lot of money? We’ll surely learn more this year at BlizzCon.
