Rumour: Overwatch 2 will have more PvE and be playable at BlizzCon this week

ESPN, "the leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment entity"*, have apparently got their hands on Blizzard's Overwatch 2 notes. They've got a source and a training document that say the game will be revealed at BlizzCon later this week, and will include "PvE features" involving "in-game items" and "hero talents". This gels with a report from 5 months back, plus it's a pretty logical move.

Still, s'cool though.

Further details are scarce, but ESPN do say that "one of the missions will be a four-player story experience set in Rio de Janeiro". We've previously heard reports of Blizzard employees comparing it to Left 4 Dead, but yunno, that's obviously a beneficial association for them to sow early on. The ESPN report also mentions a new competitive game mode called Push, plus an unidentified new hero.

BlizzCon starts this Friday, so we might find out more then or on the following days. ESPN reckon some of this will be playable on the show floor.

The prospect of playing through a cooperative story in Overwatch 2 makes for good mulling. On the one hand, Overwatch has built up but largely ignored an interesting world full of characters I already feel an attachment to. It would be neat to see them act as those characters rather than entirely substitutable multiplayer murderfolk. On the other hand, all of Overwatch's PvE story events have felt a bit lacklustre.

Blizzard no doubt hope that whatever they announce at BlizzCon will distract from their treatment of a Hearthstone pro who voiced his support of the Hong Kong protests.

*Probably but unfortunately not a ghost.