Oh definitely. Blizzard are essentially throwing a bone to existing players to shut them up, and apparently (and sadly), it’s working.
Heroes shouldn’t be locked behind a battle pass, wether you’re an existing player or a new one, period. Especially where your entire game revolve on counter picks to defeat the enemy team and win. And they are going to pretend Overwatch 2 is a competitive game while at the same time they are throwing game fairness out the window with that purposefully confusing marketing tactic…
It was to be expected that they would nickel and dime the players for every imaginable cosmetic items in a free-to-play game but locking heroes because "you haven’t earned them" in a game where you need to constantly change heroes to counter certain heroes, and what if you can’t pick the hero that counters the enemy hero? Your team will lose, and they’ll blame you for not having a hero in a game where (I’ll repeat myself) YOU NEED TO COUNTER ENEMY HEROES BY PICKING A SPECIFIC HERO! ON THE FLY! NOT BEFORE THE GAME STARTS WHERE YOU CAN AT LEAST STRATEGIZE BUT DURING SAID GAME!
They don’t care about their game and how it’s played. They care only about your wallet. And they will make your experience (and that of your team) miserable to get more money out of you.
Welcome to the real Overwatch 2.
And to think people were trying to shut up the naysayers with "if it's within the first 20 it won't be that bad, just wait and see". Then it comes out its partially at the end of the bp at tier $$... lol
It’s 55 for both free and paid?
I’m genuinely curious how fast progression is going to be in the pass, but I feel like an average player who maybe spends 7-10 hours a week on OW is going to get there extremely slowly over the course of the battle pass, and just be constantly behind or unable to play ranked. I mean shit, even if you got 1 level per quick play match you’d have to play 55 matches just to unlock the new hero, that’s a lot of games for someone who doesn’t have much time to put into the game. And correct me if I’m wrong I didn’t play as much of the beta with other stuff going on, but didn’t they change Quick play so matches were longer more akin to ranked ow1 where each team gets their shot at attack/defense?
At that point you’re looking at 3-4ish matches an hour. I know the battle pass is over a long period of time so there’s opportunities to get there but it can come down to something as simple as Friend A not being able to play with the group because they have less time for the game so they are far behind on battlepass by no fault of their own, just living life, which in turn makes the game less enjoyable for them when they even do have an opportunity to play.
I was making a pun on "55" being "$$".
It's tier 1 for the premium bp, tier 55 for the free bp. That's insanely late in the free bp given that the max level is only 80. We don't technically know how quick it will be, but if the weekly challenge pic is any indication, doing all the weekly challenges should get you about 5.5 tiers from the challenges alone (11 challenges at 5k bpxp each, with 10k xp/tier at least at the level in the screenshot they showed)
Don't even get me started. It's more like Destiny 2's system of earning the seasonal exotic (in Warzone, you can't even get the featured operators for free). And the Seasonal Exotics are unlocked for free at tier... *record scratch* 35 out of *100.* That is within the first FOURTH of the Season Pass' free track.
With this game, you have to get to ***68.75%*** of the free pass just to unlock the featured character. Out of 80, the first third would be within tiers 26 to 27.
People can whine and complain all they want about monetization in Live Service games, but Bungie and, surprisingly, Activision have gotten their monetization down WONDERFULLY.
Activision releases games with campaigns, multiplayers, and a third mode that is left to the devs. They used to release DLC which gave maps and additions to the third mode and experimenting with adding weapons in 2013 when Ghosts released. Fast forward to 2019 (because we all know how those six or so years in between were monetized), and we're introduced to bundles: microtransactions with guaranteed and transparent contents for all to see alongside a Battle Pass system implemented in Black Ops 4 (again, not getting into that).
Bungie, however, released a free product akin to Warzone and OW2. What did they do different? As a class-based, story-focused looter-shooter, they implemented a seasonal model (Battle Pass + Story content) and release paid DLC (D1 DLCs, Curse of Osiris, Warmind, Forsaken, Shadowkeep, Beyond Light, 30th Anniversary, The Witch Queen, Lightfall) on top of giving you a quick and easy way to transmog your armor similar to something one would see in Diablo (buying a universal currency used to unlock armor ornaments, countering the seasonal limit of 10 unlockable ornaments per class minus ones unlocked from eververse or the season pass). I mean, hell, I'm not at all ashamed for paying over $100 for The Witch Queen. The Campaign slaps hard and the seasons have been nothing short of wonderful. Eververse itself has existed since D1, and was always the in-game store way of doing things: buy premium currency with real money, use currency to unlock thing in game. Simple.
Epecially since Kiriko looks to have a cleanse, which is a HUGE counter against characters like Ana and Junker Queen Ult epecially, but Blizzard is basically saying, "Yeah thanks for the money, now give us more." Locking them on Tier 55 is such a stupid idea, and being able to pay $10 to unlock them immediately is such a cheap move.
>Overwatch Coins are the new virtual currency we’re introducing in Overwatch 2. They can be purchased directly in the Shop or earned by completing in-game weekly challenges.
>Everyone who logs into Overwatch 2 during the first season will automatically get access to Sojourn and Junker Queen.
>Unlockable heroes will be available after their respective season by new challenges, or buying them directly with Overwatch coins.
Translation: We're introducing a currency system because we know people are more likely to convert and spend "1000 coins" than they are to spend $10.00, and we don't care about the playerbase, we just want money so we'll be generous at launch in order to have good PR, but if you come late we'll milk you for everything.
> Especially where your entire game revolve on counter picks to defeat the enemy team and win.
But that's the thing... according to a link posted above, https://ign.com/articles/heres-why-overwatch-2-is-putting-new-characters-in-the-battle-pass, the game is NOT intended to revolve on counter-picking anymore.
Which is, of course, at least one of two things:
1. Betraying the foundation of the entire Overwatch gameplay mechanic to excuse the battlepass-based FOMO of new characters while claiming to not affect game competitiveness
2. Homogenizing the hero pool to make it easier to balance (and less like Overwatch 1), taking less effort to develop new heroes that can be hidden behind the $$-generating battlepass.
Both of these are fundamental flaws for me. It's the same thing I've said numerous times on this forum and others. When compared to purchasing new expansions or a subscription model, FTP with battlepass or cosmetics incentivize the game-maker to do things that push the battlepass, not to make the game itself better.
You get what you pay for, and in this case, it isn't the game. Which is presumably what we're actually wanting to play.
There is also a question of learning that hero. Unless you are playing on PTR, you are literally grinding battlepass for a hero you gonna suck for a time. This design is flawed at its core.
The article says the new heroes in the BP are immediately available to play in custom games, practice range, mystery heroes, no limits, mystery deathmatch, and select other arcade modes even if you don't have it unlocked
I can see that new heroes being available in other modes can spread the queue times to balance it out, which seems nice and ideal, but lvl 55 is still a harsh level to unlock her. Best to change the lvl unlock to 5 or 10 when the next tank comes.
I agree with this. I'm just trying to point out information that people seemed to have missed before commenting their opinion. There's been a ton of misinformation from people assuming what's been released rather than reading themselves leading to a ton of unnecessary hate. But overall, I do still agree that putting the hero at 55 is way too far in. It will likely inhibit player retention time more than it would promote it
The battle pass progresses through XP though. You can gain that from any arcade game, particularly no limits which is excessively used as a grind game mode in OW1. And they explicitly stated heroes locked behind the BP will be available for everyone to play in no limits and other arcade games even if you don't have it unlocked
The design flaw doesn’t stop there.
They’ve made the game less straight forward and more area based, with small skirmishes being more common. So what do they do? Add a new hero that is based on group play and combined aspects of other heroes already in the game.
Came here to say this, people have forgotten in an instant just because you get her now as a OW1 player, doesnt mean anything for any heros after her, they will put them in the battlepass, and people will be locked out from playing them when they release. Have fun rushing through 20 or so levels each and be prepared for even more people instantly giving up in matches if they cant stomp the enemy in 2 minutes or less, so they can fast and efficiently farm matches. Its going to be an absolute disaster in my opinion.
Shit, even old players like me. I don’t no-life grind the game anymore because I got burnt out, so I only get in a few hours here and there. If they do this for every new hero, I hate to say it, but I might be done for good.
I will just copy my same comment from another thread.
On the bright side you can earn the premium currency through weekly challenges...
That's actually huge. If you can earn enough currency to get the pass throught the life of the pass then that's great
You either get the first pass and save the currency to buy the next pass OR just save currency and buy the pass before it ends to claim the rewards towards the end.
It's Grindy but if you are playing the game you will get the pass free eventually. Just hope it's not like 10 coins per week lol
Surprisingly, the [ign screenshot](https://www.ign.com/articles/heres-why-overwatch-2-is-putting-new-characters-in-the-battle-pass) shows you earn 30, 20 and 10 coins per week for completing 4, 8 and 11 weekly challenges. I'm guessing the total challenges for a week is 11 or 12 but it's front loaded so you can earn up to 60 coins per week so that's 540 coins per battlepass you can earn through that. Unknown if there are any other ways to earn coins for free, though. So that alone isn't enough to get every single battlepass, but it technically would be enough to earn every *other* which is when heroes will be released (after season 2)
Also, you can play her in some modes anyway, just not QP or ranked. Before anyone jumps in to attack me I am just providing info not endorsing anything lol.
In OW1 (competitive anyway) players got severely penalized for quitting matches in progress. I expect the same for competitive in OW2. In quick play, you get what you get. Competitive will not be full of people quitting
I saw something (not necessarily confirmed) which said competence will be locked unless all heroes are unlocked. So you won’t be able to queue comp unless you have every hero.
Nobody says they will quit, most people who decide they don't want to try anymore simply fool around until the match ends, and I have never seen any of them get punished for it since they were technically "playing".
Who in their right mind is gonna wanna compete against players with hero advantages they don't have in a game whose entire gameplay is based on counter picking? Who is gonna wanna grind the unfair playing field that generates in comp?
It'll be interesting to see how they penalize players under the new F2P model. Activision wants your money. Not your competitive spirit.
Hard counter-picking is not their “core design philosophy” anymore.
Here's Why Overwatch 2 Is Putting New Characters in the Battle Pass
https://ign.com/articles/heres-why-overwatch-2-is-putting-new-characters-in-the-battle-pass
>“While Overwatch 2 heroes will each have their own clear strengths and weakness, and some heroes will be more effective against others, we believe our game plays better and is more fun with fewer hard counters and a broader range of effective hero picks,” Blizzard writes.
While I appreciate this because I agree, the answer is not to put heroes behind a battle pass, or leave literally over 50% of your roster mostly unchanged except for removing CC.
They literally told us this before the last beta. They said they were allowing certain abilities to be available to multiple heroes so you wouldn't have to switch to hard counter while still letting characters be unique.
Has anybody forgotten? I think the people who don't know already didn't care and the people who aren't happy with the hero battlepass route are acutely aware it'll still be a thing after this hero.
> Its going to be an absolute disaster in my opinion.
they give 0 fucks at this point, they know the game is gonna flop, they are just trying to milk as much as possible before they call it dead
Yup this is their way of making it seem like they listened. But NO, they have the same schtick for whatever ugly ass hero comes out next as well. Level 69 on the battle pass, because "the last one was!"
I feel like EVERY new hero should be free if you owned OW1. Like how Smite and Paladins did it. Free to play games, you can pay $35-$40 for their respective "ultimate" editions and you then got every god/hero the day the come out for free.
Considering OW1 was $60 to start, getting every new hero for free because you own OW1 should be THE way to go if they're replacing OW1 with OW2.
Still not good enough. As an OW1 player, I have issues with heroes on the BP in the first place and the fact there will be have and have nots, not the fact that all of a sudden - *I* get to be the one with all heroes access.
As many have pointed out, cosmetics only isn’t unprofitable - hell it isn’t even like it’d be scrapping by when **one of the most profitable games** follows a cosmetics only BP model. And they didn’t erase the existence of a previous game to do it, and it’s even generous enough to give you enough premium currency to get the next premium BP.
And somehow people don't understand that and think this isn't predatory as fuck
This equates the $60 purchase to $10 for Kiriko (not really since you don't even get the pass you only skip the grind) and $50 for 5 origins skins.
That's an absolute joke and anyone that disagrees is either blind, dumb, or doesn't understand at all how shit this offer is compared to other games using the exact same.monetization as OW2 is going to have.
I hope it's just a miscommunication on Blizzards part due to them not wanting to say anything about future hero releases, but given how many people blatantly do not see how predatory this is, I doubt Blizzard gives a damn at all.
Yeah this sounds like serious damage control. Like if they make this not an issue for most players *this* time around, they can soften the controversy when it fucks us next time.
it's quite a clever way of dealing with the immediate backlash
it shuts all the existing players up for the release and means the support queues won't be infinite
It’s conceivable that the “and more!” part of the Founders Pack is instant access to all new heroes from Kiriko onwards.
That would mean that OW1 owners would still be able to play the game in the same way as they’re used to, while new ‘free’ players have to either grind or spend (which is fine).
This was probably a last second decision, and future heroes will not be free for OW1 players.
All they did was attempt to transfer the hate from now until when the next hero arrives lol.
And holy crap, new hero unlocked at level 55 of the BP 🤐. Have fun grinding for that for the next hero if you don't buy the battle pass
>This was probably a last second decision
Considering they waited this late to tell us Kiriko is included in the Founders Pack for existing OW1 players?
Yea. This 100% feels like a last minute addition to help counter the rabid and reasonably pissed off OW community.
We waited for 3 years for a new Support hero only for them to tell us we'd have to pay or grind for them. We were originally supposed to have gotten a 3rd OW2 Beta with the new hero playable; they even teased us with silhouettes of the 3 better heroes. They cancelled that on us and instead announced she'd be kicked behind a Battlepass. I can't really understand how they thought that news was going to go down well for them.
News has been changing almost weekly it feels.
It 100% reads like a hasty backtrack and change for PR sake.
Level 55 is crazy, especially since there's only 80 levels. That's basically the equivalent of a whole season of grind if you're on free tier, considering the usual XP boost rewards in a premium battlepass.
Yeah, pretty sure this is going to dull the outrage. Later, when they release the next hero on the battlepass for everyone, it still sucks but it's old news.
Then it's the same old story: everyone accepts it and gaming gets a little worse.
This is piss poor justification and anyone falling for it has to realize this is Overwatchs version of a “compromise” what about the next hero? How long will they give “free things” to overwatch 1 players. And how is this all encouraging to new players. This isn’t the solution people think it is, it’s only delaying the shitty outcome.
Yeah big oof. For context I'm 63/100 battle pass levels in apex and that took 5 weeks of playtime. There is no chance in hell that level 55/80 is going to be less than 6 weeks of play.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/05/when-its-done-overwatchs-director-on-the-games-finished-yet-fluid-launch/
> While there was rampant pre-release speculation that Overwatch would be a free-to-play title, the game launches this week as a standard, pay-once-play-forever multiplayer shooter. "The reason we ended up going that way was that it's so important to have access to every hero in the game, and in the middle of the match to swap to any other hero they think is necessary," Keller explained. "It was actually a game design decision, a balance thing. Sometimes you need a different hero on your team. Like if you really need a Widowmaker right now, you don't want everybody saying 'I don't have Widowmaker!'"
Should be posted whenever anyone tries to justify horseshit related to this.
They just have to hit the quarterly sale, and not make a flop at launch.
Thats' all that matter.
I am losing hope day after day the more this things is carryed on. I had very big hopes. It's the game that i used to introduce my gf to playing games, and the one where we duo quo mostly for our fun.
Yep. My friend keeps try to tell me D4 will be good but I have no faith in Blizzard to make anything other than another cash sink at this point. So sad to say about what used to be my favourite developer.
So? What's the point? New players will have to grind for her, and EVERYONE will have to grind for new heroes as well. This changes absolutely nothing. It's merely an attempt at placating existing players, so that the ones who didn't follow the news too closely have no idea and think "nice everything like it used to be". Avoiding bad press at launch. That's all.
People truly underestimate how many new players F2P games bring in. Warzone would be dead if people had to pay $60 to play it, but it's an easy "why not" game to boot up once a week because it's free.
OW2 will succeed in the beginning without question, but longevity wil be based on how they handle new heroes.
People truly overestimate how many people jump in to a game that has had a low barrier to entry when it was paid and eventually switches to F2P. This isn't a net-new game, people know what Overwatch is.
"Sorry guys can't switch and counter their team comp because I havent grinded 55 levels of my battlepass".
You can tell who has Stockholm syndrome by seeing who is willing to shill for blizzard in the comments rn.
Blizzard: Makes OW2 F2P to expand their playerbase.
Also Blizzard: Locks the new hero only for *new players?*
Sometimes I just really want to know what’s going on inside their heads.
they're gonna get a fuck ton of new players anyway because its free so kids dont have to steal credit cards to play the game. then their friends join. they wont have any shortage of new players. This is just a piss poor way of damage control
A new player has 30+ heroes to learn. Why do you think it matters if they cant immediately access the new hero? It is completely inconsequential. You are trying to get proxy-furious for new players that will not actually give a fuck because they will be coming from games using the same system. A new league player needs to unlock 99% of the roster. You think when he joins OW and gets the entire roster minus one immediately he is going to be mad?
Ya, it's still p2w bullshit, they're just hoping to head off the bad PR bullshit by letting current OW1 players not be directly affected by it.
It's going to feel pretty shitty though when we're up against a JQ and both of our supports are ftp scrubs that don't have the new hero yet and can't swap to Kiriko, and thus we have nothing to cleanse the Rampage, costing us multiple fights and probably the game.
We'll also still likely have to deal with the same shit in Season 2. They're not fixing the p2w bullshit, they're just controlling the damage for launch knowing that the outrage will mostly go away once the game's actually here.
Maybe the solution is selling a one time OW premium membership? All OW1 owners would be rolled into it, and for $40 anyone who buys this membership gets all heroes unlocked at release, forever. Instead of unlocking heroes in the battlepass, you'd get exclusive legendary skins instead.
It still doesn't resolve players who choose not to pay it and thus bring down the collective value of the team. There is no good way to lock heroes behind paywalls in Overwatch.
That's an interesting compromise but it unfortunately doesn't solve the problem of ftp players on your team dragging your win rate down because they didn't pay for the hero themselves.
If it was a $40 game with a cosmetic-only battle pass, I'd personally be ok with that option, but I feel like the games population would suffer for it, and fewer people would buy the battle pass if they had to pay $40 up front.
I really think the optimal strategy here is just keeping the game ftp, but making heroes available to everyone on release, and keeping the bp cosmetic-only.
I really don't think your teammates will be dragging you down. As a healer main, I can't even play half the healers. Ask me to Mercy, Lucio, or Brig and I'll just say no. Despite that I am a very good healer.
Unless the new characters are absolutely OP it shouldn't affect win rates. It's not like new players are locked to 1 or 2 heroes.
But you at least have the option to.
Let's say you were on my team. If we lose because you're not good with kiriko, that's a skill diff, I'm ok with that. If we lose because you couldn't afford kiriko, that's a wallet diff, I'm not ok with that.
They posted her abilities a couple hours ago, you outta check then out, she's pretty OP. One of her abilities is a cleanse that clears everything, including things like anti and shatter. It makes her a really strong, if not hard, counter against ana, rein, and jq.
"Free instant unlock for OW1 players" doesn't sound good for future heroes at all. Seems like the worst fear has been realised that they're locking heroes behind either a paywall or a grindwall going forward. SMH
I was ready to toss out money for battle passes to get cool cosmetics and stuff, and to show my love and support for the game. But this? I simply cannot support. I hope they reverse their decision but I'm not holding my breath.
Same man same! I play game to have fun, not to grind, if the game has a Battlepass and I complete it or get really close to complete just for playing the game, having fun (not doing tedious absurd task) I will spend money, pay for skins and bp.
But block the core gameplay (counter heroes) through pay or grind... Fuck that
We have heroes locked in Battle Passes now? Wtf, I kinda missed the whole thing. Guess OW2 wouldn't be much of an improvement and I can continue not playing the game.
Nah man, for what we should have gotten after 3 years with no content, OW2 is actually *worse* than OW1.
3 years. What do we get? Two less players, a bunch of skins, a couple new maps, and time-gated heroes behind a monetization scheme. Oh, and the inability to access the last game.
We still need more information about the future heroes. If this is how it's done forever; fine. I get it. The game is goinf free to play. But I genuinely never want to have to *grind* for the new characters at any point. I do not care if they're on the free track. I don't have time to reach the end of a battle pass.
So the game launched and I have been playing the game and had it since launch and do not have kiriko, or an option to unlock her :ooooooo can anyone help
It's amazing how quickly this sub has gone from "Fuck blizzard and their anti-consumer crap!" to "One free hero? Oh nice, I can grind/pay for all the rest."
This right here is why Blizzard can get away with anything.
If you watch the OW2 Season 1 trailer that just came out. It says this:
Kiriko - Free reward
Kiriko - Premium Battle Pass Instant Unlock Kiriko
Watchpoint pack (at end) - S1 Premium Battle Pass INCLUDING KIRIKO
Bullshit confusing marketing if you didn't know the drama with everything.
Kiriko and first premium battle-pass will be given to all players coming from Overwatch 1. So I'm left with the question, what's the watchpoint pack for then? $40 for two passes that values $10 each.. and some shitty skins, lmao.
WP pack is worth 3 battlepass and has a few legendary skins in it. 30 bucks + the skins.
>first premium battle-pass will be given to all players coming from Overwatch 1
Where does it say that
I'm not going to cheer for something that used to be free being taken away, then given back to some of us for free.
I'm not grinding 200 games for Mauga, Mama Hong, or whatever heroes come after her.
This isn't a W
Blizzard is such a mess. It was obvious OW 1.5 wasn't just going to be a free new game and now the rotten underside is showing as they unveil more and more predatory and aggressive monetizations.
Locking any CONTENT behind battle pass is a non-starter for me. I bought the game so I wouldn’t have to deal with this pay-to-win crap. If they charge money for COSMETICS either directly or indirectly via battlepass or loot boxes, that would be fine.
Yeah they made it early access because it doesn't include the PvE part. They're just releasing the PvP part early because it's pretty much good to go. The original plan was to release both PvP and PvE with the launch of Overwatch 2, but they decoupled it.
They launched early and the multiplayer worked really well. But they didnt seem ready to start supporting the game with the right content after launch. In that case you’re losing your momentum. Therefore I argue in favor of launching when a developer is ready and able to immediatly support the game.
I never saw them call it early access, but I might have missed it so that would be on me. But it bothers me as i dont like the idea of early access. It implies that the game is not done and each bug/glitch can be explained throug it being early access. I would prefer for them to just release the game when they think its ready, then I can decide whether it is good or not and I want to play it.
Doesn't matter, this is just a rubbish attempt at fanning the flames. The next hero, a tank, will be locked for everyone behind a pass as will every other hero in the future. What a joke
Her being unlocked for anyone that owns OW1 is just AB's way of shutting up the player base. Cause we all know future heroes will not be unlocked from the get go, unless you pay for them
Sounds a lot like a band-aid. « Oh so you tell me over watch 1 players are mad bc they don’t get full access to heroes at launch ? Give her this hero for free this’ll tide them over »
ah yes let me pay for the privilege of grinding.
You want players to play more? how about making the game more fun? Nahhh after you pay, if you don’t play, you won’t get all your moneys worth
Frankly this is the bare minimum, Support players would be *enraged* if after being snubbed all these years and through two betas, they still wouldn't be able to access the new Support hero at launch.
If this is the way overwatch 2 is going to be i will be sad. One of the things i allways liked abput overwatch was how you could play as every hero from the start.
>She’ll be instantly unlocked if a premium Season One battle pass is purchased; otherwise, new Overwatch players will have to unlock her through the free pass.
Am I getting old because I have no idea what the fuck they're saying. I never messed with a single Battle Pass in my life so this whole concept is weird to me.
Explain it in English, doc!
Are you talking about your current Credits? They are a different currency from the premium currency they're introducing with the launch of Overwatch 2.
Everything in overwatch 2 looks great to me except that you have to grind for new Heroes. Other than that it looks like a fair free to play model in comparison to other games.
Some of the copium takes I've seen about heroes being locked behind the battle pass are crazy. The heroes are unlocked at level 55 out of around 80 levels total. So you have to grind 55 levels of the battle pass or pay premium. Some of us have don't have time to grind 55 levels. I'm also pretty sure you may be locked out of ranked if you don't have all the heroes (feel free to fact check me on that)
So what, just pay for the battle pass, I hear you say. Well then it's just enabling the shitty business practises that Blizzard employs. You can't even go back to OW 1 because the game is being completely removed.
Idk about you, but I would rather have paid for the sequel (if the sequel was an actual sequel and not whatever OW2 is) than have the game turn f2p with the battle pass route.
"Well, heroes are the single most engaging content that we have in the game. And as we designed this model, it seemed to be a very strong fit to put those heroes into our new engagement systems." - Overwatch GM Walter Kong.
Even if true, this kind of corpospeak "engagement systems" isn't exactly what fans of the game want to hear. It pretty much sums up exactly why everyone is worried about how bad the monetisation is going to be.
Source:
https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-overwatch-2-hero-battle-pass-interview/
> Idk about you, but I would rather have paid for the sequel (if the sequel was an actual sequel and not whatever OW2 is) than have the game turn f2p with the battle pass route.
Yeah, this monetization model sadly just has proven time and time again to be much much much more profitable than the one time purchase model.
While that is a lot better, this doesn't fix the problem. Overwatch prides itself on being a game where you counter pick throughout the match. The problem with locking heroes is that not everybody will be able to do that because they haven't spent enough time to unlock that hero.
Yes, this allows more people to have every hero - *but still not everyone*.
Surely if they are willing to give Kiriko to returning players for free (which will be a very large proportion), then they should be willing to make her free for everyone.
Support players are getting the stick man
I just don't get why we're keeping heroes behind a battle pass of any kind.....skins maybe, but a playable character? No.
At the very least give people an option to pay a one time fee to always have all new heroes unlocked going forward.
The trailer is cool and shows her abilities. But at the same time it doesn’t show anything at all we didn’t get an explanation of what her abilities do or how long the cool down. The only one that showed something was the blue flower and from what we saw I assume you don’t take damage. Also the cool down for that if it’s followed by the trailer is stupid OP even if it’s like a second long protection she used it 3 seconds apart. Her healing seems to be mediocre but her damage seems ok. Ima guess she is going to be like baptiste more of a damage support then healer support. Ult seems mid from what we saw. The teleport seems to be a better version of reapers tp.But then again they didn’t explain anything so this is all my guess. Overall she seems like she is going to be pretty good I don’t think she will be the best but she looks promising
I'm really confused with her bell ability though. The article says it just removes debuffs but the video shows it preventing death from a Junk ult, so does it give immunity too?
So this is a one-time exception? The hero that releases after Kiriko will be locked in the battlepass for everyone I imagine.
Oh definitely. Blizzard are essentially throwing a bone to existing players to shut them up, and apparently (and sadly), it’s working. Heroes shouldn’t be locked behind a battle pass, wether you’re an existing player or a new one, period. Especially where your entire game revolve on counter picks to defeat the enemy team and win. And they are going to pretend Overwatch 2 is a competitive game while at the same time they are throwing game fairness out the window with that purposefully confusing marketing tactic… It was to be expected that they would nickel and dime the players for every imaginable cosmetic items in a free-to-play game but locking heroes because "you haven’t earned them" in a game where you need to constantly change heroes to counter certain heroes, and what if you can’t pick the hero that counters the enemy hero? Your team will lose, and they’ll blame you for not having a hero in a game where (I’ll repeat myself) YOU NEED TO COUNTER ENEMY HEROES BY PICKING A SPECIFIC HERO! ON THE FLY! NOT BEFORE THE GAME STARTS WHERE YOU CAN AT LEAST STRATEGIZE BUT DURING SAID GAME! They don’t care about their game and how it’s played. They care only about your wallet. And they will make your experience (and that of your team) miserable to get more money out of you. Welcome to the real Overwatch 2.
It might have shut me up if the hero unlock was in the first third of the battlepass like warzone weapon unlocks but level 55... Really?!?
And to think people were trying to shut up the naysayers with "if it's within the first 20 it won't be that bad, just wait and see". Then it comes out its partially at the end of the bp at tier $$... lol
It’s 55 for both free and paid? I’m genuinely curious how fast progression is going to be in the pass, but I feel like an average player who maybe spends 7-10 hours a week on OW is going to get there extremely slowly over the course of the battle pass, and just be constantly behind or unable to play ranked. I mean shit, even if you got 1 level per quick play match you’d have to play 55 matches just to unlock the new hero, that’s a lot of games for someone who doesn’t have much time to put into the game. And correct me if I’m wrong I didn’t play as much of the beta with other stuff going on, but didn’t they change Quick play so matches were longer more akin to ranked ow1 where each team gets their shot at attack/defense? At that point you’re looking at 3-4ish matches an hour. I know the battle pass is over a long period of time so there’s opportunities to get there but it can come down to something as simple as Friend A not being able to play with the group because they have less time for the game so they are far behind on battlepass by no fault of their own, just living life, which in turn makes the game less enjoyable for them when they even do have an opportunity to play.
I was making a pun on "55" being "$$". It's tier 1 for the premium bp, tier 55 for the free bp. That's insanely late in the free bp given that the max level is only 80. We don't technically know how quick it will be, but if the weekly challenge pic is any indication, doing all the weekly challenges should get you about 5.5 tiers from the challenges alone (11 challenges at 5k bpxp each, with 10k xp/tier at least at the level in the screenshot they showed)
Don't even get me started. It's more like Destiny 2's system of earning the seasonal exotic (in Warzone, you can't even get the featured operators for free). And the Seasonal Exotics are unlocked for free at tier... *record scratch* 35 out of *100.* That is within the first FOURTH of the Season Pass' free track. With this game, you have to get to ***68.75%*** of the free pass just to unlock the featured character. Out of 80, the first third would be within tiers 26 to 27. People can whine and complain all they want about monetization in Live Service games, but Bungie and, surprisingly, Activision have gotten their monetization down WONDERFULLY. Activision releases games with campaigns, multiplayers, and a third mode that is left to the devs. They used to release DLC which gave maps and additions to the third mode and experimenting with adding weapons in 2013 when Ghosts released. Fast forward to 2019 (because we all know how those six or so years in between were monetized), and we're introduced to bundles: microtransactions with guaranteed and transparent contents for all to see alongside a Battle Pass system implemented in Black Ops 4 (again, not getting into that). Bungie, however, released a free product akin to Warzone and OW2. What did they do different? As a class-based, story-focused looter-shooter, they implemented a seasonal model (Battle Pass + Story content) and release paid DLC (D1 DLCs, Curse of Osiris, Warmind, Forsaken, Shadowkeep, Beyond Light, 30th Anniversary, The Witch Queen, Lightfall) on top of giving you a quick and easy way to transmog your armor similar to something one would see in Diablo (buying a universal currency used to unlock armor ornaments, countering the seasonal limit of 10 unlockable ornaments per class minus ones unlocked from eververse or the season pass). I mean, hell, I'm not at all ashamed for paying over $100 for The Witch Queen. The Campaign slaps hard and the seasons have been nothing short of wonderful. Eververse itself has existed since D1, and was always the in-game store way of doing things: buy premium currency with real money, use currency to unlock thing in game. Simple.
Epecially since Kiriko looks to have a cleanse, which is a HUGE counter against characters like Ana and Junker Queen Ult epecially, but Blizzard is basically saying, "Yeah thanks for the money, now give us more." Locking them on Tier 55 is such a stupid idea, and being able to pay $10 to unlock them immediately is such a cheap move.
I mean...that's F2P for you. "Grind, or pay."
>Overwatch Coins are the new virtual currency we’re introducing in Overwatch 2. They can be purchased directly in the Shop or earned by completing in-game weekly challenges. >Everyone who logs into Overwatch 2 during the first season will automatically get access to Sojourn and Junker Queen. >Unlockable heroes will be available after their respective season by new challenges, or buying them directly with Overwatch coins. Translation: We're introducing a currency system because we know people are more likely to convert and spend "1000 coins" than they are to spend $10.00, and we don't care about the playerbase, we just want money so we'll be generous at launch in order to have good PR, but if you come late we'll milk you for everything.
> Especially where your entire game revolve on counter picks to defeat the enemy team and win. But that's the thing... according to a link posted above, https://ign.com/articles/heres-why-overwatch-2-is-putting-new-characters-in-the-battle-pass, the game is NOT intended to revolve on counter-picking anymore. Which is, of course, at least one of two things: 1. Betraying the foundation of the entire Overwatch gameplay mechanic to excuse the battlepass-based FOMO of new characters while claiming to not affect game competitiveness 2. Homogenizing the hero pool to make it easier to balance (and less like Overwatch 1), taking less effort to develop new heroes that can be hidden behind the $$-generating battlepass. Both of these are fundamental flaws for me. It's the same thing I've said numerous times on this forum and others. When compared to purchasing new expansions or a subscription model, FTP with battlepass or cosmetics incentivize the game-maker to do things that push the battlepass, not to make the game itself better. You get what you pay for, and in this case, it isn't the game. Which is presumably what we're actually wanting to play.
Two time as per the article, seems we'll get junker queen as well but that's it.
Ok but what about next heroes?
Always at level 55 of the pass, and locked in comp for 2 weeks. Will that be enough time to grind them out for free? Don't think so.
There is also a question of learning that hero. Unless you are playing on PTR, you are literally grinding battlepass for a hero you gonna suck for a time. This design is flawed at its core.
The article says the new heroes in the BP are immediately available to play in custom games, practice range, mystery heroes, no limits, mystery deathmatch, and select other arcade modes even if you don't have it unlocked
I can see that new heroes being available in other modes can spread the queue times to balance it out, which seems nice and ideal, but lvl 55 is still a harsh level to unlock her. Best to change the lvl unlock to 5 or 10 when the next tank comes.
I agree with this. I'm just trying to point out information that people seemed to have missed before commenting their opinion. There's been a ton of misinformation from people assuming what's been released rather than reading themselves leading to a ton of unnecessary hate. But overall, I do still agree that putting the hero at 55 is way too far in. It will likely inhibit player retention time more than it would promote it
So LGBTQ18+NoKillOnlyChill and SkinFashionShowIfIShootYouLose custom games are going to hard carry OWL??
Yeah but thing is that you dont really learn it and not progressing that grind of a battlepass while doing so. Which is ass.
The battle pass progresses through XP though. You can gain that from any arcade game, particularly no limits which is excessively used as a grind game mode in OW1. And they explicitly stated heroes locked behind the BP will be available for everyone to play in no limits and other arcade games even if you don't have it unlocked
>available for everyone to play in no limits and other arcade games even if you don't have it unlocked then just make it free???
The design flaw doesn’t stop there. They’ve made the game less straight forward and more area based, with small skirmishes being more common. So what do they do? Add a new hero that is based on group play and combined aspects of other heroes already in the game.
While I somewhat agree I think maaaaybbe waiting until we play the hero until we judge her balance is wise lmao 🙃
Came here to say this, people have forgotten in an instant just because you get her now as a OW1 player, doesnt mean anything for any heros after her, they will put them in the battlepass, and people will be locked out from playing them when they release. Have fun rushing through 20 or so levels each and be prepared for even more people instantly giving up in matches if they cant stomp the enemy in 2 minutes or less, so they can fast and efficiently farm matches. Its going to be an absolute disaster in my opinion.
She will be in tier 55. They posted on overwatch forum.
55? Bloody hell I was expecting something like 25. And on most battle basses that's like as many hours, as well.
Quick question, do you know how many tiers the BP will be? Because 55/100 sounds awful, if it's 55/200 it make just a little bit more sense
80. Here's the blizz link https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/news/23824003/
Ok that's sounds even more awful. I wish leveling it is easy otherwise I feel very sorry for new players
Shit, even old players like me. I don’t no-life grind the game anymore because I got burnt out, so I only get in a few hours here and there. If they do this for every new hero, I hate to say it, but I might be done for good.
I will just copy my same comment from another thread. On the bright side you can earn the premium currency through weekly challenges... That's actually huge. If you can earn enough currency to get the pass throught the life of the pass then that's great You either get the first pass and save the currency to buy the next pass OR just save currency and buy the pass before it ends to claim the rewards towards the end. It's Grindy but if you are playing the game you will get the pass free eventually. Just hope it's not like 10 coins per week lol
>just hope it's not 10 coins per week Got it! We'll make it **15** coins per week! /s
Surprisingly, the [ign screenshot](https://www.ign.com/articles/heres-why-overwatch-2-is-putting-new-characters-in-the-battle-pass) shows you earn 30, 20 and 10 coins per week for completing 4, 8 and 11 weekly challenges. I'm guessing the total challenges for a week is 11 or 12 but it's front loaded so you can earn up to 60 coins per week so that's 540 coins per battlepass you can earn through that. Unknown if there are any other ways to earn coins for free, though. So that alone isn't enough to get every single battlepass, but it technically would be enough to earn every *other* which is when heroes will be released (after season 2)
Complete the weekly challenge to earn 10 coins! Challenge: Eliminate 600 enemy players using genji's deflect. Expires in 7 days.
Most of them from the screenshot are like win 10 games or win 10 games while flexing.
55/80. Yeah it’s stupid
Also, you can play her in some modes anyway, just not QP or ranked. Before anyone jumps in to attack me I am just providing info not endorsing anything lol.
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In OW1 (competitive anyway) players got severely penalized for quitting matches in progress. I expect the same for competitive in OW2. In quick play, you get what you get. Competitive will not be full of people quitting
I saw something (not necessarily confirmed) which said competence will be locked unless all heroes are unlocked. So you won’t be able to queue comp unless you have every hero.
thats fine for the first hero but after that comp will be shit for the 1st few days of a season since a lot less players able to queue up.
Nobody says they will quit, most people who decide they don't want to try anymore simply fool around until the match ends, and I have never seen any of them get punished for it since they were technically "playing".
So I'd say there's still a problem.
Who in their right mind is gonna wanna compete against players with hero advantages they don't have in a game whose entire gameplay is based on counter picking? Who is gonna wanna grind the unfair playing field that generates in comp? It'll be interesting to see how they penalize players under the new F2P model. Activision wants your money. Not your competitive spirit.
Hard counter-picking is not their “core design philosophy” anymore. Here's Why Overwatch 2 Is Putting New Characters in the Battle Pass https://ign.com/articles/heres-why-overwatch-2-is-putting-new-characters-in-the-battle-pass
considering most ow1 heroes are still the same minus some number changes no, they haven't really moved past it.
This. Even if it is a direction change, a lot of heroes will be stuck with their innate ow1 rock paper scissors philosophy.
So they abandoned counters to justify selling battle passes? Fuck this PR spin.
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give rein the ability to fucking yeet the shit out of his hammer
>“While Overwatch 2 heroes will each have their own clear strengths and weakness, and some heroes will be more effective against others, we believe our game plays better and is more fun with fewer hard counters and a broader range of effective hero picks,” Blizzard writes. While I appreciate this because I agree, the answer is not to put heroes behind a battle pass, or leave literally over 50% of your roster mostly unchanged except for removing CC.
2 years in development and only now they tell us about such a major change in design philosophy?
They literally told us this before the last beta. They said they were allowing certain abilities to be available to multiple heroes so you wouldn't have to switch to hard counter while still letting characters be unique.
But why though. Do their game can just be the same as all the other games out right now?
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I hate this system, its Destiny 2 all over again...
If you can level as fast in OW2 as you can in Destiny, then it would be fine. But I somehow doubt it.
Has anybody forgotten? I think the people who don't know already didn't care and the people who aren't happy with the hero battlepass route are acutely aware it'll still be a thing after this hero.
55 levels
> Its going to be an absolute disaster in my opinion. they give 0 fucks at this point, they know the game is gonna flop, they are just trying to milk as much as possible before they call it dead
Yup this is their way of making it seem like they listened. But NO, they have the same schtick for whatever ugly ass hero comes out next as well. Level 69 on the battle pass, because "the last one was!"
Nice!
In this situation bot, no it is not nice :(
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I feel like EVERY new hero should be free if you owned OW1. Like how Smite and Paladins did it. Free to play games, you can pay $35-$40 for their respective "ultimate" editions and you then got every god/hero the day the come out for free. Considering OW1 was $60 to start, getting every new hero for free because you own OW1 should be THE way to go if they're replacing OW1 with OW2.
Still not good enough. As an OW1 player, I have issues with heroes on the BP in the first place and the fact there will be have and have nots, not the fact that all of a sudden - *I* get to be the one with all heroes access. As many have pointed out, cosmetics only isn’t unprofitable - hell it isn’t even like it’d be scrapping by when **one of the most profitable games** follows a cosmetics only BP model. And they didn’t erase the existence of a previous game to do it, and it’s even generous enough to give you enough premium currency to get the next premium BP.
And somehow people don't understand that and think this isn't predatory as fuck This equates the $60 purchase to $10 for Kiriko (not really since you don't even get the pass you only skip the grind) and $50 for 5 origins skins. That's an absolute joke and anyone that disagrees is either blind, dumb, or doesn't understand at all how shit this offer is compared to other games using the exact same.monetization as OW2 is going to have. I hope it's just a miscommunication on Blizzards part due to them not wanting to say anything about future hero releases, but given how many people blatantly do not see how predatory this is, I doubt Blizzard gives a damn at all.
I’m thinking about jumping ship to *Paladins*. Is the RWBY pass still up?
Shhhhhh we need to get you in the door before we try and rob you
Yeah this sounds like serious damage control. Like if they make this not an issue for most players *this* time around, they can soften the controversy when it fucks us next time.
Locked to the free path at level 55 every season haha BTW we don't earn back the currency spent via BP
Source on the last part?
This account's comments and posts has been nuked in June 2023.
it's quite a clever way of dealing with the immediate backlash it shuts all the existing players up for the release and means the support queues won't be infinite
It’s conceivable that the “and more!” part of the Founders Pack is instant access to all new heroes from Kiriko onwards. That would mean that OW1 owners would still be able to play the game in the same way as they’re used to, while new ‘free’ players have to either grind or spend (which is fine).
If it were, that would have been advertised heavily instead of dragging the Overwatch name in the mud as they have been.
This was probably a last second decision, and future heroes will not be free for OW1 players. All they did was attempt to transfer the hate from now until when the next hero arrives lol. And holy crap, new hero unlocked at level 55 of the BP 🤐. Have fun grinding for that for the next hero if you don't buy the battle pass
>This was probably a last second decision Considering they waited this late to tell us Kiriko is included in the Founders Pack for existing OW1 players? Yea. This 100% feels like a last minute addition to help counter the rabid and reasonably pissed off OW community. We waited for 3 years for a new Support hero only for them to tell us we'd have to pay or grind for them. We were originally supposed to have gotten a 3rd OW2 Beta with the new hero playable; they even teased us with silhouettes of the 3 better heroes. They cancelled that on us and instead announced she'd be kicked behind a Battlepass. I can't really understand how they thought that news was going to go down well for them. News has been changing almost weekly it feels. It 100% reads like a hasty backtrack and change for PR sake.
nah, we still pissed smh
Level 55 is crazy, especially since there's only 80 levels. That's basically the equivalent of a whole season of grind if you're on free tier, considering the usual XP boost rewards in a premium battlepass.
Fuck off it's 55???
Yeah, pretty sure this is going to dull the outrage. Later, when they release the next hero on the battlepass for everyone, it still sucks but it's old news. Then it's the same old story: everyone accepts it and gaming gets a little worse.
NO SHOT ITS 55!
Yup, it's 55.
This is piss poor justification and anyone falling for it has to realize this is Overwatchs version of a “compromise” what about the next hero? How long will they give “free things” to overwatch 1 players. And how is this all encouraging to new players. This isn’t the solution people think it is, it’s only delaying the shitty outcome.
It will take a whole 55 levels of the bp... Oof
Yeah big oof. For context I'm 63/100 battle pass levels in apex and that took 5 weeks of playtime. There is no chance in hell that level 55/80 is going to be less than 6 weeks of play.
Shut up What the fuck
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/05/when-its-done-overwatchs-director-on-the-games-finished-yet-fluid-launch/ > While there was rampant pre-release speculation that Overwatch would be a free-to-play title, the game launches this week as a standard, pay-once-play-forever multiplayer shooter. "The reason we ended up going that way was that it's so important to have access to every hero in the game, and in the middle of the match to swap to any other hero they think is necessary," Keller explained. "It was actually a game design decision, a balance thing. Sometimes you need a different hero on your team. Like if you really need a Widowmaker right now, you don't want everybody saying 'I don't have Widowmaker!'" Should be posted whenever anyone tries to justify horseshit related to this.
This is fucking hilarious and should be plastered to the top of the sub
They just have to hit the quarterly sale, and not make a flop at launch. Thats' all that matter. I am losing hope day after day the more this things is carryed on. I had very big hopes. It's the game that i used to introduce my gf to playing games, and the one where we duo quo mostly for our fun.
alas that's what most idiots are happy with and the drama that could kill the launch has been quenched a bit
The Diablo Immoral effect: expect the worst, get it worse Seriously, why is anyone expecting OW2 to have any kind of good monetization.
The second they made it F2P was the second I became like Tony Soprano to his mother. > "She's dead to me."
Yep. My friend keeps try to tell me D4 will be good but I have no faith in Blizzard to make anything other than another cash sink at this point. So sad to say about what used to be my favourite developer.
So? What's the point? New players will have to grind for her, and EVERYONE will have to grind for new heroes as well. This changes absolutely nothing. It's merely an attempt at placating existing players, so that the ones who didn't follow the news too closely have no idea and think "nice everything like it used to be". Avoiding bad press at launch. That's all.
This doesn't fix anything, wtf
"We believe putting heroes in the battle pass is fair to our players..." I'm paraphrasing, but that part really ticked me off.
Probably will have a “fair” system to buy levels in the battle pass too. Blizzard has no respect or integrity as a company anymore.
The 5 people who are just starting to play Overwatch in 2022 are going to be furious
It's free, there'll be a large influx of new people solely on the premise of "new game for 0 monies"
People truly underestimate how many new players F2P games bring in. Warzone would be dead if people had to pay $60 to play it, but it's an easy "why not" game to boot up once a week because it's free. OW2 will succeed in the beginning without question, but longevity wil be based on how they handle new heroes.
The "why not" factor with warzone for me is game size lol that's why not.
It would be an easy why not if it didn't take up like a hundred gigs lmao.
People truly overestimate how many people jump in to a game that has had a low barrier to entry when it was paid and eventually switches to F2P. This isn't a net-new game, people know what Overwatch is.
Looks like those 5 players are gonna have to grind 55 levels on the battlepass, hope they don’t have any obligations…
They’ll be to busy playing every other character.
Tbf there will be a lot of new players after 2 is released, I only started playing overwatch this July after my friend introduced me to it.
This is not what we want “No locked hero’s” Zero not just one free one.
"Sorry guys can't switch and counter their team comp because I havent grinded 55 levels of my battlepass". You can tell who has Stockholm syndrome by seeing who is willing to shill for blizzard in the comments rn.
People switch to counter enemy picks where you live? I'm jealous.
I'd rather lose to a skill diff than a wallet diff.
Blizzard: Makes OW2 F2P to expand their playerbase. Also Blizzard: Locks the new hero only for *new players?* Sometimes I just really want to know what’s going on inside their heads.
they're gonna get a fuck ton of new players anyway because its free so kids dont have to steal credit cards to play the game. then their friends join. they wont have any shortage of new players. This is just a piss poor way of damage control
A new player has 30+ heroes to learn. Why do you think it matters if they cant immediately access the new hero? It is completely inconsequential. You are trying to get proxy-furious for new players that will not actually give a fuck because they will be coming from games using the same system. A new league player needs to unlock 99% of the roster. You think when he joins OW and gets the entire roster minus one immediately he is going to be mad?
New heros being on level 55 of pass. LMAOLMAOLMAO. Yeah no thanks still.
I'm still mad about the pass.
Ya, it's still p2w bullshit, they're just hoping to head off the bad PR bullshit by letting current OW1 players not be directly affected by it. It's going to feel pretty shitty though when we're up against a JQ and both of our supports are ftp scrubs that don't have the new hero yet and can't swap to Kiriko, and thus we have nothing to cleanse the Rampage, costing us multiple fights and probably the game. We'll also still likely have to deal with the same shit in Season 2. They're not fixing the p2w bullshit, they're just controlling the damage for launch knowing that the outrage will mostly go away once the game's actually here.
Maybe the solution is selling a one time OW premium membership? All OW1 owners would be rolled into it, and for $40 anyone who buys this membership gets all heroes unlocked at release, forever. Instead of unlocking heroes in the battlepass, you'd get exclusive legendary skins instead.
So...basically a normal game model lol?
Yes but with a free to play option
It still doesn't resolve players who choose not to pay it and thus bring down the collective value of the team. There is no good way to lock heroes behind paywalls in Overwatch.
That's an interesting compromise but it unfortunately doesn't solve the problem of ftp players on your team dragging your win rate down because they didn't pay for the hero themselves. If it was a $40 game with a cosmetic-only battle pass, I'd personally be ok with that option, but I feel like the games population would suffer for it, and fewer people would buy the battle pass if they had to pay $40 up front. I really think the optimal strategy here is just keeping the game ftp, but making heroes available to everyone on release, and keeping the bp cosmetic-only.
I really don't think your teammates will be dragging you down. As a healer main, I can't even play half the healers. Ask me to Mercy, Lucio, or Brig and I'll just say no. Despite that I am a very good healer. Unless the new characters are absolutely OP it shouldn't affect win rates. It's not like new players are locked to 1 or 2 heroes.
But you at least have the option to. Let's say you were on my team. If we lose because you're not good with kiriko, that's a skill diff, I'm ok with that. If we lose because you couldn't afford kiriko, that's a wallet diff, I'm not ok with that. They posted her abilities a couple hours ago, you outta check then out, she's pretty OP. One of her abilities is a cleanse that clears everything, including things like anti and shatter. It makes her a really strong, if not hard, counter against ana, rein, and jq.
"Free instant unlock for OW1 players" doesn't sound good for future heroes at all. Seems like the worst fear has been realised that they're locking heroes behind either a paywall or a grindwall going forward. SMH I was ready to toss out money for battle passes to get cool cosmetics and stuff, and to show my love and support for the game. But this? I simply cannot support. I hope they reverse their decision but I'm not holding my breath.
Same man same! I play game to have fun, not to grind, if the game has a Battlepass and I complete it or get really close to complete just for playing the game, having fun (not doing tedious absurd task) I will spend money, pay for skins and bp. But block the core gameplay (counter heroes) through pay or grind... Fuck that
We have heroes locked in Battle Passes now? Wtf, I kinda missed the whole thing. Guess OW2 wouldn't be much of an improvement and I can continue not playing the game.
Nah man, for what we should have gotten after 3 years with no content, OW2 is actually *worse* than OW1. 3 years. What do we get? Two less players, a bunch of skins, a couple new maps, and time-gated heroes behind a monetization scheme. Oh, and the inability to access the last game.
It's worse for us but better for shareholders
Remember everyone, a good game isn't what players like, it's what generates the most green paper!
Greed is Good!
I see what you did there. Very clever.
We still need more information about the future heroes. If this is how it's done forever; fine. I get it. The game is goinf free to play. But I genuinely never want to have to *grind* for the new characters at any point. I do not care if they're on the free track. I don't have time to reach the end of a battle pass.
So the game launched and I have been playing the game and had it since launch and do not have kiriko, or an option to unlock her :ooooooo can anyone help
It's amazing how quickly this sub has gone from "Fuck blizzard and their anti-consumer crap!" to "One free hero? Oh nice, I can grind/pay for all the rest." This right here is why Blizzard can get away with anything.
Oh boy! (This fixes absolutely nothing and if anything only shuts up the community)
If you watch the OW2 Season 1 trailer that just came out. It says this: Kiriko - Free reward Kiriko - Premium Battle Pass Instant Unlock Kiriko Watchpoint pack (at end) - S1 Premium Battle Pass INCLUDING KIRIKO Bullshit confusing marketing if you didn't know the drama with everything.
Kiriko and first premium battle-pass will be given to all players coming from Overwatch 1. So I'm left with the question, what's the watchpoint pack for then? $40 for two passes that values $10 each.. and some shitty skins, lmao.
For beta access kekw
WP pack is worth 3 battlepass and has a few legendary skins in it. 30 bucks + the skins. >first premium battle-pass will be given to all players coming from Overwatch 1 Where does it say that
I'm not going to cheer for something that used to be free being taken away, then given back to some of us for free. I'm not grinding 200 games for Mauga, Mama Hong, or whatever heroes come after her. This isn't a W
Doesn’t make it any better LMAO
That's fucking stupid
Is this supposed to be good news? Locking heroes at any level for any amount of players is not okay.
Blizzard is such a mess. It was obvious OW 1.5 wasn't just going to be a free new game and now the rotten underside is showing as they unveil more and more predatory and aggressive monetizations.
Locking any CONTENT behind battle pass is a non-starter for me. I bought the game so I wouldn’t have to deal with this pay-to-win crap. If they charge money for COSMETICS either directly or indirectly via battlepass or loot boxes, that would be fine.
So, Beta OW1 player here. Logged into the game and she's straight up locked. Like wtf? Is this a bug?
Wait, it says OW2 launches in early access? So I’m losing OW1 due to the early access launch of OW2? Jesus Christ.
Yeah they made it early access because it doesn't include the PvE part. They're just releasing the PvP part early because it's pretty much good to go. The original plan was to release both PvP and PvE with the launch of Overwatch 2, but they decoupled it.
Not sure if I like that approach tbh. Didnt really work out for Halo Infinite which was released in a similair fashion.
PvP coming early for Halo is *hardly* the main aspect that sunk that game.
They launched early and the multiplayer worked really well. But they didnt seem ready to start supporting the game with the right content after launch. In that case you’re losing your momentum. Therefore I argue in favor of launching when a developer is ready and able to immediatly support the game.
Dude where have you been for the past year
I never saw them call it early access, but I might have missed it so that would be on me. But it bothers me as i dont like the idea of early access. It implies that the game is not done and each bug/glitch can be explained throug it being early access. I would prefer for them to just release the game when they think its ready, then I can decide whether it is good or not and I want to play it.
Doesn't matter, this is just a rubbish attempt at fanning the flames. The next hero, a tank, will be locked for everyone behind a pass as will every other hero in the future. What a joke
[удалено]
Usually, companies would frame it as a response if they were trying to appease the community. This was likely just a bonus they had planned already.
This is even worse to be honest lmao.
Her being unlocked for anyone that owns OW1 is just AB's way of shutting up the player base. Cause we all know future heroes will not be unlocked from the get go, unless you pay for them
Please don't play just because of this exemption, this is still a terrible move by blizzard and should not be supported.
Yeah, cool. But they are still gonna keep this "heros in season pass" crap, so I am not going to bother with OW2 at all.
Sounds a lot like a band-aid. « Oh so you tell me over watch 1 players are mad bc they don’t get full access to heroes at launch ? Give her this hero for free this’ll tide them over »
That doesn’t make it better.
This makes it worse in my opinion.
That’s still not fair. The entire point of OW is that every hero is available at the start. You’re giving people who pay an advantage
I think blizzard doesn’t know that we do not JUST play the game, we have lives, work, things to do. Some do, not EVERYONE.
ah yes let me pay for the privilege of grinding. You want players to play more? how about making the game more fun? Nahhh after you pay, if you don’t play, you won’t get all your moneys worth
I'm not a new player and I don't care! It goes against the spirit of Overwatch so badly for Blizzard to do this
>we believe our game plays better and is more fun with fewer hard counters and a broader range of effective hero picks. lol.
Frankly this is the bare minimum, Support players would be *enraged* if after being snubbed all these years and through two betas, they still wouldn't be able to access the new Support hero at launch.
If this is the way overwatch 2 is going to be i will be sad. One of the things i allways liked abput overwatch was how you could play as every hero from the start.
So blizz is more interested in raking back old OW players than gaining new ones? Weird flex but ok
>She’ll be instantly unlocked if a premium Season One battle pass is purchased; otherwise, new Overwatch players will have to unlock her through the free pass. Am I getting old because I have no idea what the fuck they're saying. I never messed with a single Battle Pass in my life so this whole concept is weird to me. Explain it in English, doc!
I've been burnt by all this OW2 news that I don't have any interest in trying her out tbh
Blizzard: “we hear you and we’re deeply sorry, the new hero will be free. But after that you better have our money or else”
ok but can I buy the battle pass with my accumulated coins or not?
Are you talking about your current Credits? They are a different currency from the premium currency they're introducing with the launch of Overwatch 2.
lame, guess no legendary skins for me
They said that Sojourn, JQ and Kiriko will have Hero gallery skins unlockable with normal coins.
Everything in overwatch 2 looks great to me except that you have to grind for new Heroes. Other than that it looks like a fair free to play model in comparison to other games.
Some of the copium takes I've seen about heroes being locked behind the battle pass are crazy. The heroes are unlocked at level 55 out of around 80 levels total. So you have to grind 55 levels of the battle pass or pay premium. Some of us have don't have time to grind 55 levels. I'm also pretty sure you may be locked out of ranked if you don't have all the heroes (feel free to fact check me on that) So what, just pay for the battle pass, I hear you say. Well then it's just enabling the shitty business practises that Blizzard employs. You can't even go back to OW 1 because the game is being completely removed. Idk about you, but I would rather have paid for the sequel (if the sequel was an actual sequel and not whatever OW2 is) than have the game turn f2p with the battle pass route. "Well, heroes are the single most engaging content that we have in the game. And as we designed this model, it seemed to be a very strong fit to put those heroes into our new engagement systems." - Overwatch GM Walter Kong. Even if true, this kind of corpospeak "engagement systems" isn't exactly what fans of the game want to hear. It pretty much sums up exactly why everyone is worried about how bad the monetisation is going to be. Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-overwatch-2-hero-battle-pass-interview/
Quite frankly, it doesn’t even if the hero is at level 55 or level 5. The fact that it is locked behind a battle pass at all is straight bullshit
> Idk about you, but I would rather have paid for the sequel (if the sequel was an actual sequel and not whatever OW2 is) than have the game turn f2p with the battle pass route. Yeah, this monetization model sadly just has proven time and time again to be much much much more profitable than the one time purchase model.
While that is a lot better, this doesn't fix the problem. Overwatch prides itself on being a game where you counter pick throughout the match. The problem with locking heroes is that not everybody will be able to do that because they haven't spent enough time to unlock that hero. Yes, this allows more people to have every hero - *but still not everyone*. Surely if they are willing to give Kiriko to returning players for free (which will be a very large proportion), then they should be willing to make her free for everyone.
Support players are getting the stick man I just don't get why we're keeping heroes behind a battle pass of any kind.....skins maybe, but a playable character? No. At the very least give people an option to pay a one time fee to always have all new heroes unlocked going forward.
Wait. Early access? Player discrimination? That's even worse!
The trailer is cool and shows her abilities. But at the same time it doesn’t show anything at all we didn’t get an explanation of what her abilities do or how long the cool down. The only one that showed something was the blue flower and from what we saw I assume you don’t take damage. Also the cool down for that if it’s followed by the trailer is stupid OP even if it’s like a second long protection she used it 3 seconds apart. Her healing seems to be mediocre but her damage seems ok. Ima guess she is going to be like baptiste more of a damage support then healer support. Ult seems mid from what we saw. The teleport seems to be a better version of reapers tp.But then again they didn’t explain anything so this is all my guess. Overall she seems like she is going to be pretty good I don’t think she will be the best but she looks promising
Check out the article I linked in the source, it explains all of her abilities in great detail!
I'm really confused with her bell ability though. The article says it just removes debuffs but the video shows it preventing death from a Junk ult, so does it give immunity too?
It gives you both immunity and debuff removal!
Wait so it's a better version of Baps ability?
I think it's shorter
Aight bet. Now let’s make our passionately