The newOverwatch 2PvE mode, Cosmic Crisis, has launched despite the “majority” of its dev team being laid off before Season 9’s release.
AsSeason 9kicks off its first week, it brings with it a plethora of major changes and additions, from the massiveCompetitive overhaulto the dizzying amount of balance adjustments made to every single Hero’s health pool.
Aside from the massive meta shifts, it also saw the arrival of a new PVE game mode (albeit non-canon), called Cosmic Crisis as the Season’s big event, coinciding with the Battle Pass theme.
However, leading up to the release of Season 9,Blizzard faced a massive round of layoffswhich allegedly saw the “majority” of the OW2 PvE team let go.
I’m just so so proud of the PVE team for this event mission! From pitching to production and bug fix, everyone really killed it. Even though majority of the folks that worked on this got laid off, I’m so happy with what we created. ❤️🐙https://t.co/vMuEeEotdf
“I’m just so proud of the PvE team for this event mission!”Monika Lee, ex-Game Producer for Overwatchsaid of the Cosmic Crisis game mode.
“From pitching to production and bug fix, everyone really killed it. Even though majority of the folks that worked on this got laid off, I’m so happy with what we created.”
The layoffs came months after Activision Blizzard’s formal acquisition from Microsoft, which then followed with the tech giant laying off a staggering 1,900 employees across the two game publishers.
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The layoffs affected more than just the studios, as Acti-Blizz’sesports divisionsand various other sections were also impacted, with anuntitled survival gamethat was in development being reportedly canceled amid it all.
Jeremy Gan was a Games Writer on Dexerto’s Australia team. He is a journalism graduate and expertly covers CS:GO, Valorant, Overwatch, League of Legends, and Dota 2, as well as trending stories in Twitch and Kick streaming.
