I just want to add how much I love these posts, I often hear complaints about transparency and then I see posts like this, very open and honest on design choices.
Just want to say not only thanks for sharing but how much you share and the details of it.
Just wanted to say that I really appreciate the increased communication on these forums lately, and I’m certain I’m not the only one to feel this way.
On-topic: I do love the Gauntlet-esque arcade madness of the 5-player missions, but I can see the logic. Plus I’m still hoping for a horde mode down the track to satisfy my occasional craving for bigger, louder, more disgusting swarms of scoundrels.
Edit: @Derch beat me to it!
[quote=“FlamesForAll, post:12, topic:1547726, full:true”]People: Give us more content!
Also people: The current content is too long![/quote]
Apples and oranges. Not content - mission length. You don’t always have 40 minutes straight to spend in the game. What to do if you only have 25? Or your comfortable pace for solo play takes one hour for each mission? Either way, it’s easier to manage your time in smaller portions since there is no save game feature and you lose everything if you quit before mission is finished.
I really cannot understand how you can to this conclusion when 3 player mode is the only one that is so bad I would re-queue rather than suffer the tedium. It’s so easy that a strong player 1 can carry a completely weak player 2 and 3 on 3 player.
Also 3 player does not allow for a good balance of team roles such as Tank, support, ranged dps, melee dps, disruption etc.
Sorry to be so negative but this change is what has changed me from desperate for the DLC to come out and for a new challenge (as I have played all the launch ones to death already on 5 man HC) to not playing anymore and having no plans to come back when the DLC lands.
BB was my most played game on Steam but now I regret buying the DLC season pass and won;t be playing anymore. 
I have not played in weeks and only came back to the forum as I got an email about a post in a necroed thread from 27 days ago. I had left and given up but having noticed this thread, thought I would at least detail why.
I emplore you please do to not dumb down the Story mode in this way.
You should wait and see how it plays before you write it off
I refer to the necroed thread I mentioned as this was the point the necroer was attempting to make.
(sorry for the edits - it kept not posting how I wanted and then telling my my “body was too similar to what i just posted”
sigh
I respect your opinion, though I disagree.
We feel differently, and have heard differently from a lot of players. We’ve also developed and tuned the new missions to be suited for 3-player parties, so I think it’s a bit early to take your experience with the main game missions and project that onto the operations. Though, with such a strong reaction here, I imagine objectivity would be hard–we struggle with that all the time in dev…predispositions.
I’d recommend trying it, especially since you’ve already purchased it. THEN, come back here and bless me out. 
Always a bit strange to me, though, to see “having no plans to come back” in the middle of a lengthy, passionate post. Sounds like the path to the dark side!
And I’m not buying the 3 man justification, especially when there are also no plans to address the balance issues that currently plague 4 and 5 man groups.
This sounds like a corporate PR speech in hopes to sell an another product/concept while hoping no one will continue to bring up the issues of the previous one.
So you have 160 levels to tune, and therefore solo is more important and 3 man is the best group?
What does that have to do with anything?
How did anyone come to such a conclusion?
Is that supposed to make sense?
How does that make 3 man this ideal group?
At this point should I place my bet that the concept of 5 man is abandoned and that those who love 5 man should keep their agony to themselves and move on?
In a 4 or 5 man group, each person’s role is vital and they need to do it competently for victory. Suddenly making it 3 man isn’t going to make me believe each role is suddenly more vital than it was a 5 man.
I’m not sold on the idea -even less so at this point.
Amazing explanation. A lot of people have been wondering. Also, as others have said, you and Joe seem more present on the forums. Thank you!
Although it’s terrible to bring up around here, Overwatch went through similar pains. 7 was too much, 5 was too small. They were able to test with ridiculous resources. Gearbox took a little longer to find what they think of as the magic number
You are getting spoiled 
Thank you so much for that answer, very in depth and honest, can’t stress this enough, thank you
What I’m saying is that the justification I just read didn’t tell me anything.
All I got was: we got 160 levels to tune, therefore solo play is more important and 3 man is the magic number.
That doesn’t tell me jack crap.
All I see is 4 to 5 man is being thrown down the ditch before letting a few monster trucks run it over back and forth and then telling us there is nothing to see here, there is no mangled corpse, there was no such thing as a 5 man, it was all just a figment of your fantasy.
Never heard about this. Where can I learn more?
I have spoken to a few of my BB buddies who aren’t playing as much but are planning on making a re-emergence for the DLc weekend after next.
They were quite surprised to hear the new story DLCs will only be 3 player but they understood when I told them that -
A - the new missions will be shorter
B - it was becoming increasingly difficult already for the existing missions to find competent 5 person teams, especially on advanced and hardcore
C - that the new PVP mode, which will undoubtedly by the most popular thing about the DLC releases, will still be 5 player
Yea, but the one after Face Off is 3 v 3
Remember to mention that they change when played!
PvP is not relevant to me.
I was always talking about the PvE.
PvP is getting 3v3 and 5v5s, so that’s getting the best of both worlds.
Like I said, I’m not buying the 3 man reason for PvE, and these recent posts have not make things more convincing why 3 man is such a great idea.