That says every other (single line 2/3s through the article), but could be a misprint. Either way, sounds like there'll be regular new content. Wonder how long it will last. Not a fan of it going free to play and relying on a battle pass. Loot boxes weren't great, but as someone that bought the first game new at launch and hasn't put a single penny in since yet still managed to unlock 90% of all released content, I'm disappointed at the amount of stuff I'll miss out on now.
Yeah, no idea how I'm going to handle this. Is it going to lock characters out if you don't buy them?
Ah, my bad then. I hope all the cosmetics are still reasonably easy to unlock. Guess we'll see in October. I hope not. I don't want them to do the heroes Apex Legends style. I'll be pissed lol
The way I read it is a new hero will launch at the start of every other season, in line with a new battle pass but not part of it. If they lock heroes behind a paywall it'll be the death of the game.
From the sound of it, the battle pass is for cosmetic stuff and they’re not being particularly clear on that. Like if I’m wrong than so be it but I genuinely doubt they’re gonna make people buy access to heroes.
Earning loot boxes was incentive. I don't know if I'd be as eager to deal w toxic pvp if cosmetics are behind a pay wall. Then again, I haven't really touched OW in 2-3 yrs
Putting heroes behind a paywall would genuinely hurt the game so that’s why I doubt it. Like the core idea of the game is that you can swap heroes on the fly to change the flow and dynamics of a match in progress. Locking heroes based on payment would greatly disrupt the flow of the game as well as going against an established precedent of several years of freely added heroes as well. OW is already having enough of a hard time keeping people as is, why do something to make everyone else leave?
Between this and the announcement that I’ll be getting every character for Valorant and LoL with gamepass, man it feels good to be a cheap gamer that doesn’t care about cosmetics lol.
Played a bit of the beta. 6 games, all as a healer. Early days, but feels great. Initially, I'm liking the switch to 5 a team. Loveee the more detailed scoreboard. Not liking everyone only playing the new characters and refusing to switch. Not sure I'll ever get into a game as Tank or Damage again. Oddly missing the lack of loot boxes as a little reward every couple of games. Not even for the items, more just for the little rush you get when earning one
Ah man I'll miss that too! I don't care too much for cosmetics, but I found a lot of enjoyment in playing a few games of Overwatch a week to earn a loot box. I would never ever spend real money on a loot box, but I enjoyed the dopamine hit of opening one for free as a reward for simply playing the game. I played Overwatch for a good 2 years, which is more than I've ever played a multiplayer game. I guess that kind of player mentality doesn't translate to $$$ for Activision Blizzard though. I've tried reading up on it just now and it looks like it will now be a Battle Pass model going forward? I've only ever bought a Battle Pass for Halo Infinite and Fall Guys and I have to say they just feel needlessly grindy to me. The whole "do these particular things to earn extra XP" just results in weird in-game personal objectives that draw away from the actual game objective. The lack of randomness to the rewards also just underlines the grind for uninteresting cosmetics. Will be interesting to see how it all looks for Overwatch 2. I'm excited to dip back into the world in October and see if I'm still a passable player after all these years!
Agree with every word! The idea of a battle pass system is so contrary to why I enjoy Overwatch. The beta is fine as it isn't live, but I do worry how it might change the game once the full release comes.
This is legit the dumbest fucking thing that could be done to this game, locking new heroes behind a battle pass, even if it's the free tier.
Unless the hero is at literally stage 1 of the pass, then free doesn't matter. It still requires a grind or play time to access.
Only upside i’ve heard about this is that the heroes will be banned from ranked until the season ends and then everyone will get the hero, regardless of how far into the battle pass you are