Overwatch 2 Ditches Another New Game Mode As It Slowly Sheds What Made It A Sequel

Tracer with her hands on her hips.

Overwatch 2’s entire concept as a sequel was based on it offering new modes, seasonal cycles, and new monetization plans through battle passes and an overhauled cosmetics shop. Two of those pillars are very much intact, but many of the new game modes have not panned out over the past year and a half. Blizzard’s planned PvE suite was gutted to remove its skill trees and hero missions, and the story mode has reportedly been scrapped after just three missions. Now, there’s been another new mode removed from the game, though it’s probably the least offensive loss thus far: Hero Mastery Gauntlet.

Hero Mastery Gauntlet is a cooperative spin on the typical Hero Mastery mode that was added in September of 2023, which has largely gone under the radar for most players since it launched in March. Whereas Hero Master creates single-hero obstacle courses, Hero Mastery Gauntlet has teams of three defending towers against incoming enemies and aiming for high scores. It was decent enough, but it sounds like the mode has not resonated with players, and the team is scrapping it in season 11.

In a post on Blizzard’s forums, the company put out a statement confirming that Hero Mastery Gauntlet would be discontinued, and would no longer be available to play after the end of season 10. The base Hero Mastery mode, which creates hero-specific obstacle courses that have been rolling out in waves since September, will continue, with more hero courses expected in future seasons. The full message reads as follows:

As we prepare for Season 11, we’ve taken the time to evaluate a variety of game modes based on how much they are being played. Hero Mastery Gauntlet was intended to bring the high score-chasing excitement of Hero Mastery missions into a multiplayer format. Unfortunately, it hasn’t resonated with players in the ways that we hoped. With this in mind, we have decided to discontinue Hero Mastery Gauntlet as a permanent mode, and it will not be available to play starting in Season 11.

Players have until the end of Season 10 to complete the Lifetime Challenges for Hero Mastery Gauntlet and compete on the mode’s Top 500 leaderboards.

Thanks to all of you who jumped into the Gauntlet. If you are still looking to improve your hero skills, Individual Hero Mastery Solo Courses will continue to be available, and there will be more Hero Mastery Solo Courses coming in upcoming seasons. We’ll see you in-game!

The next season of Overwatch 2 begins on June 18, so you have a little over three weeks to play through Hero Mastery Gauntlet. Ultimately, it’s not that big of a loss compared to the likelihood that the entire story campaign was canned after Activision Blizzard’s layoffs gutted the team in January, but every time Overwatch 2 loses a new game mode its justification of that sequel title feels more nebulous than before.

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