Overwatch fan theorizes shocking number of heroes went unreleased due to canceled PvE plans

Fans of Overwatch have continued to express their frustration with Blizzard after the developer announced that it canceled its original PvE content plans for Overwatch 2, and one particular gamer on June 3 did some math regarding possible hero releases in light of the PvE shift that’s a little bit maddening.

Around the time of Overwatch 2’s announcement at BlizzCon 2019, Blizzard took many development resources from the live game and began investing them in the new PvE project for OW2, which we now know has been largely scrapped or edited. This left many gamers playing what felt like a dead game for the last couple years of the first Overwatch.

However, Reddit user RainbowBBfan posted to social media trying to conceptualize how Overwatch’s history may have played out had the overly ambitious decision to make OW2 never been made, and the results were shocking.

Had Blizzard continued the content schedule it maintained in 2017 and 2018, this player’s math suggests that every new hero added to the game since Overwatch 2 went live in October last year would have already been in the game nearly two years ago. That’s right: Had Blizzard released new heroes at the same clip as it did prior to the OW2 announcement, Lifeweaver would have been a part of the game for nearly two years at this point.

Related: Why did Blizzard kill its original Overwatch PvE campaign plans?

Meanwhile, the player also theorized that players would likely have access to about five more heroes than are in the game right now, putting OW at a total of 42 heroes.

Though the hindsight bias in the post and its comments are strong, it’s not wholly unreasonable considering the years-long promise that Blizzard broke.

In a post to the game’s official website, game director Aaron Keller apologized shortly after announcing the cancellation. However, it’s clear that nearly a month later, fans still have hard feelings after years of being led on, and this look back at years of content that fans missed out on only makes it sting that much more.