‘Overwatch’ Has a Lot of Changes Coming
Overwatch 2 is less than a month away from release, but some of the incoming changes to the game might not make fans happy.
With millions of players, hundreds of millions of hours played, and a constantly steadily growing player base, it’s safe to say that Overwatch has been one of the most popular games on the market since its release in 2016. But there are some changes coming to the game that may leave fans less than enamored with the series soon.
Good Bye (Original) Overwatch
In 2022 Overwatch 2 was released. Much the same as the original, it was originally meant to have a “shared multiplayer environment” with the original. People could play together from either game, and unlocked cosmetics and features were supposed to transfer from one game to the other.
But now on October 2nd, two days before Overwatch 2 officially launches, the original game will be taken down from its servers. After that point, without a solo play option, the game will be effectively gone permanently. And that’s not all that Blizzard is dropping. Assault maps are being swapped out for the new Push Mode. Meaning that Hanamura, Volskaya, and the Temple of Anubis will all be removed.
For players looking to continue with Overwatch, you’ll need to transition over to the newer game. You can order your copy of the game now and it will have the option to preload shortly before the official launch.
Overwatch 2 and the Battle Pass
Blizzard detailed exactly what we can expect from Overwatch 2 in a massive blog post yesterday.
There will be two options for players, the Free and Premium tracks. Premium will cost a thousand Overwatch Coins or ten real-world U.S. dollars. This will give players access to skins, cosmetics, and playable heroes.
While Overwatch previously prided itself on being a game that let every player play every character without the need for microtransactions, Overwatch 2 is locking some of the heroes behind a paywall.
Of course, players on the free track will also be able to access these characters eventually. They will be able to unlock new features at the seasonal Battle Pass. Players who make it to Battle Pass tier 55 will unlock the same characters other players will be unlocking with cash.
At this time it’s unknown how players will earn Battle Pass experience and how much is needed to progress through tiers.
Jon Spector, a VP of Overwatch claims that fans will come to accept the changes to the game, claiming that most just didn’t use more than the standard one or two go-to’s.
“What we actually see in the data is that a majority of players in Overwatch have a majority of their play time on two or fewer heroes. And you can get to 99.9% of play time for a majority of our players with 12 or fewer heroes.”
In short, players don’t need the options because they probably weren’t going to use them anyway.
This may be disappointing to Overwatch fans who don’t want to pay an additional premium but were excited for the new hero, like Kiriko, the widely leaked new ninja character.
Will you be playing Overwatch 2? Do you play by paying for the premium track, or fighting your way through the Battle Pass? How many characters do you usually use? Let us know in the comments!
Happy Adventuring!
