Jason Schreier’s original article is here
For those who encounter a paywall, an archived version is here
The important bit in his article:
Last year, Overwatch 2 received a paid pack of three PvE story missions that sold poorly, according to people familiar with the business, which was a major reason for the cratering bonuses. In January, as part of a company-wide reduction in its work force, the majority of the team behind Overwatch 2’s PvE was laid off.
Overwatch 2 developers were informed that the company does not plan to finish any of the remaining planned PvE content and will instead double down on competitive player vs. player gameplay, according to the people familiar.
It’s mind-blowing how bad they fucked up Overwatch. All they had to do was keep the OW1 servers and progression for PvP, and sell PvE expansion packs. Expand the lore through PvE expansion packs and offer exclusive cosmetics that people can show off in PvP, but don’t stop releasing cosmetics that can be obtained through PvP gameplay.
Add on a battle pass for more exclusive cosmetics (NOT FUCKING HEROES), and bam you’ve got a stew going.
That would bring in more than enough revenue to keep the servers running and making a tidy profit for years, like TF2.