The mood in the Overwatch 2 community has been tense for months. Many questions about the successor to the popular hero shooter remain unanswered even a few weeks before release. A very central one: Exactly how will the Free2Play model work?
A Blizzard manager has now explained that new heroes are hiding behind a Battle Pass. In the free portion, players must first unlock the heroes before they can use them. This is driving critics crazy as it could have a major impact on Overwatch 2’s gameplay.
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What is already known?
Blizzard Vice President Jon Spector said only one thing Tweetthat heroes in Overwatch 2 are free to play in the Battle Pass. More information will follow shortly before release.
You can read what is already known about Overwatch 2 in our overview:
Overwatch 2
Everything we know about the hero shooter
How could this work?
The case is a bit complicated, so let’s explain it in bullet points:
- The Battle Pass contains a free and a paid path, as practiced in other shooters such as Apex Legends but also Hunt: Showdown.
- While the priced path contains only cosmetic content such as skins, free players will receive all content relevant to gameplay, such as the aforementioned new heroes.
- This forces players to grind the Battle Pass, i.e. to play regularly and a lot, in order to get the heroes relevant to the game. Like other publishers, Blizzard may also offer boosters for real money that enable a faster route to the content.
However, Blizzard is already heavily criticized for the last Free2Play release, namely Diablo Immortal. Maurice explains to you in the video what is going wrong with Diablo Immortal:
22:27
Diablo Immortal – This is Pay2Win from Hell
What’s the problem?
Players are now criticizing that this business model, which is quite common for Free2Play games, is contrary to the gameplay. In e-sports, but also in the recreational game of Overwatch, tactical options are part of every match.
Players switch heroes mid-game to counter certain other tactics, make a tricky dash, or support their team with healing or shields.
Now, if some players are missing the new heroes, they have fewer options to choose from. Now imagine a team made up mostly of players without the new heroes versus a team that has all the tactical options… there might be a qualitative divide. With this mind game, some players would be at a disadvantage.
On Twitter, a fan responded with a pessimistic assessment:
link to Twitter content
Details still unclear
However, we do not yet know how the business model will develop in detail. For example, it would be possible for Blizzard to address the issue described above by making competitive matches only accessible to players with all unlocked heroes. Or games can be thrown together based on the unlocked heroes. We’ll have to wait for the developer to communicate more details.
Blizzard’s recent business strategies in the Free2Play area, see Diablo Immortal, even ensure that fans with great Skepticism about the future release of Diablo 4 look. GameStar editor Peter comes to the conclusion: »Blizzard no longer wants and needs players like me«.
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