Permanent Overwatch PvE Mode Wouldn’t Be “Replayable Enough,” Says Blizzard
Game director Jeff Kaplan and lead software engineer, Bill Warnecke, sat down with the Reddit moderator team to discuss several different aspects of their critically-acclaimed game Overwatch. From the controversial Mercy changes, engine origins, to the OW league, the two are quite open about the thoughts and processes behind it all. One of the most highly requested features to bring onto the core game is a permanent Overwatch PvE mode, but Kaplan and Warnecke aren’t sold on the idea at the moment.
Regularly lurking the Reddit and game forums for feedback and suggestions for ideas on how to improve the game, Kaplan and Warnecke are personal witnesses to the desire for one, but it doesn’t seem like a feasible idea. The concern resides with the perceived lack of replayability the mode offers, according to the director:
There’s a huge PvE pedigree on the team and we’re super interested in it, but the thing people sometimes overlook is that our engine is built from the ground up – and it’s brand new. There are a lot of different ‘moving parts’. Even getting the smallest AI to path and move across the map is a big deal for us. We know people want a PvE mode, but when people ask us to make our current modes permanent, we don’t feel they’d be replayable enough. To get to the point where PvE is its own thing, in that regard, is almost like talking about a new game.”
Making the Overwatch PvE a special occasion seems to do the trick for the most part with maintaining the desire for the next year such as Junkrat’s Halloween Terror or the recent addition of Uprising in the Spring. With that being said, the developers will continue working on and improving the good and the bad of their current repertoire. “But at it’s core,” says Kaplan. “Overwatch, the game everyone’s playing, is a 6 player action shooter.”
On the other hand, from the perspective of a game engineer, Warnecke admits that the team haven’t the tools to provide for a respective game mode mainstay. Say that they entertained the idea of making a permanent Overwatch PvE mode, it would take quite a lot of creative power and moving factors to make it a replayable addition:
On an engineering note, working with a design team that’s incredibly creative… if we haven’t provided the tools for them to make something happen, it’s a painful experience. When you’re creative and you want things to happen in the game, you need to set yourself up to be able to do that. The current modes are great because they’re compartmentalising the scope of the PvE, which allows us to do the best job possible with the tools we have.”
What do you think the developer team should do in regards to a permanent Overwatch PvE mode? Do you think the community’s consistent requests should be enough to do it anyway? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below or start a conversation on Don’t Feed the Gamers Facebook page. To stay up to date on gaming news as they happen, follow us on Twitter! Here are some of our latest:
Hoi Duong2131 Posts
Hoi is an elusive figure at DFTG, whose favorite past-times include chillin' in the Fade, reading manga, watching anime, collecting novelty items, and gaming.
