One of the few Overwatch2co-op PvE modes, the Hero Mastery Gauntlet, will be removed next season because it's not interested, blizzard announced in a forum post.1

"Hero Mastery Gauntlet was intended to bring the excitement of chasing high scores in the hero Mastery mission into a multiplayer format," wrote Community manager Kaedi. "Unfortunately, it has not resonated with the players in the way we wanted."

Hero Mastery Gauntlet — Not to be confused with the Hero Mastery Solo Course — You robo using unique tools like turrets and explosive barrels Your final score is based on how efficiently you clear enemies and pick up spawning coins in levels. It's a fun way to try the heroes you don't usually play until you're forced into a meta—team configuration just to increase difficulty and survive - the curse of all Overwatch PvE mode.

Compared to the Solo Hero Mastery Mode, which basically has a growing list of obstacle courses for individual heroes, the Hero Mastery Gauntlet is really a commune because it has nothing to do with the Overwatch 2 story and is like the Skill Tree Blizzard, which was discontinued in "Hero Mode" last year. There is also no such progression system. This is a mode for a very niche set of highly skilled groups who want to smash the same thing over and over for some small cosmetic rewards.

That it's been removed after just 4 months speaks to Overwatch2's confused approach to pve after abandoning most of its ambitions for a sequel. Story Missions still exist, but are now buried under the vaguely named "Missions" menu option. I queued for a couple of them a few weeks ago, and it couldn't find a real player fast enough, so with teammates Bloomberg and Kotaku, Blizzard decided to release their 2nd set of story missions after a massive Activision Blizzard layoff wiped out the PvE side of the team. Not having current plans

It's not surprising to see the vacant mode go — a lot of live service games do this to keep the queue time low — but it's not surprising that the Hero Mastery Gauntlet allows players to play the original version of Overwatch 2. This does not mean that the game was not iterated to be closer to what we wanted from the pitch focused on the PvE of the pitch. It is not a bad mode; It just suffered from the lack of complexity that makes you want to come back. But if no more people are left to work on it, the PvP side of the game will take the rest of the year to refine existing maps and heroes.

No one can say that Overwatch2PvE is really dead, but blizzard's silence last year has revealed that it's not a priority. I think that it is. With recent changes, to make the game more like MOBA than FPS and make heroes free again, Overwatch2 has basically put the past 2 years back into games like Overwatch1. It is possible that only the ghosts of the ambitious sequel remain.