With the release of Overwatch 2 next month, Blizzard is making some pretty major changes to the way the game deals with progression – and not all of them are sitting well with long-time fans of the franchise. Specifically, it’s been revealed that in order to unlock new hero Kiriko for free, you’ll need to reach tier 55 on the game’s Battle Pass.
Now obviously it’s impossible to estimate exactly how long that will take until the title is out, but we do know you’ll need 10,000 XP just to reach tier two – and you only get 9,000 XP for completing three daily challenges. Of course, there’ll surely be various other ways to earn XP, but we’d still expect tier 55 to take many hours to achieve.
Of course, you’ll be able to purchase Kiriko outright if you want to – this is just for those who want to play for free. For example, if you purchase the premium track of the Battle Pass, you’ll unlock the newcomer immediately, and all the additional rewards available as you level up, including one epic skin, five legendary skins, and one customisable mythic skin.
It’s probably worth reiterating that Overwatch 2 will be free-to-play, so it needs to make money somehow. However, some fans are frustrated that there are now strings attached to the new heroes, when this wasn’t the case before. Fortunately, if you already own Overwatch, then you’ll be entitled to redeem a Founder’s Pack, which includes instant access to Kiriko anyway. But moving forwards, you’re probably going to need to come to terms with these changes to progression.
[source pcgamer.com, via thegamer.com]
Comments 31
I see myself trying this game for a few hours and then noping out.
So just like Paladins? Eh, I am fine with that.
This is, genuinely just pay 2 win
Even in fighting games with DLC characters that may or may not be stronger than others, the basis of Overwatch has always been character swapping and variety. This locks one of the most critical elements behind a grind or paywall.
I don't want to pay or play.
What's the problem with a hero taking many hours to unlock? Don't many normal games lock characters/cars/whatever behind progression. The original was a full price game when it was designed and gave its heroes away free. The sequel is free to play and locks its heroes behind a paywall. Sounds like normal F2P rubbish to me. But then so is people moaning. It's always going to happen.
A game has changes and some people are annoyed. This is human nature and occurs after every change that's ever happened in any circumstance where a fanbase is concerned. I don't know why it gets focussed on, it's inevitable. It's like a weather forecast pointing out the weather tomorrow is sunny with clouds and going on to explain that the when the clouds pass in front of the sun it won't be as sunny.
Saw this coming, but I'm fine with it.
You can't expect a dev to make a free to play game and give you everything, they need to make money somehow, and it's mainly in battle passes and I've seen so many games were people moan that the battle passes aren't worth it and you get crap stuff. And now overwatch fix that by adding actually playable characters to the battle pass to make it worth it......
and they still get crapped on.
@OmegaStriver same here, I'm looking forward to giving it a go just to see if it improves on stuff from OW1, but I'll probably get bored quickly and go play literally anything else.
Blizzard aren’t content with just abusing women, they’re now here to destroy even the slightest goodwill they still had.
I just love coming home after a long day of work and then getting to work on my game. If I'm not playing the same game every single day completing dailies and grinding my battle pass well...just what am I doing!?
Listen man, I don't like it when video games try to dictate my time to me. Sometimes I want to play for 20 minutes that day, sometimes I want to go all out and play until midnight but that's my choice. Not the choice of those that say I need to complete this battle pass in this specific time or I'll miss out on goodies. Or if I don't grind my dailies or login everyday then my bonuses will reset. Or being told I need to play certain modes or use certain heroes for extra bonuses. I miss buying the game once and then just playing it whenever or however I want.
@riceNpea Its a pay to win locking characters behind a paywall a massive fail. And yes there will be meta characters and if its new you need grind for me its a 1000% pass on this game. I want to have fun relax i have a job i dont want to work to relax.
...Or, you could, well ...you know ...
Wouldn't have any problem with this if it wasn't completely replacing the previous paid for game.
@UltimateOtaku91 People who make this like its ok are the worst its a little extra every time. It started the same with expansions then MT and gambling for kids. And i cant remember anybody ever said yeah lets do characters behind a paywall. If you do a battle pass dont do a palletswap or stickers that nobody cares about to make it worse to level and add absolutely nothing. Especially if you have Jobs behind a paywall.
@Flaming_Kaiser I know, but it's a F2P so it's not surprising. If this were happening to Overwatch when it was a game you paid for to own, that would be egregious as you've already parted with money and they altered the deal. This is typical F2P mechanics, it's not new and I can understand its inclusion under those circumstances.
Sp the real issue isn't the Blizzard have made a BP with heores on it, its that they decided to go down the F2P route in the first place. That is what's annoying.
@ATaco Finally someone who gets it i dont want a job after my job.
@uptownsoul yes that's much worse. F2P-style paywalls of game-affecting content in full price games.
@riceNpea Thats why i stay away from F2P games and this makes it even easier to do it. Let me pay so i can play, not play so i can pay got i have some really fun games like Gems of War and the Fallout game where you see that if i could have payed to play it would have been so much less of a Punishment the Fallout Shelter Platinum was something that made me dislike a great game.
@Flaming_Kaiser exactly that. People complaining about F2P games trying to stiff us for cash are wasting their time. That genie was let out of the bottle years ago and it's never going back.
Or I just won't play it at all and go play one of the other hundreds of games out there.
@riceNpea The Battlepass with COD MW it was fun at the start but after a while you have to play it every day and in the weekend its oh crap i need to go otherwise i wont get max level thats where the good stuff is ofcourse.
I thought it was 2 weeks of playing and no time for other games because the bloody pass needs to be finished.... ☹️
Im gonna aviod this like the plague with Gems of War the same the daily log in and all that crap its a job...
@riceNpea The big difference here is that not all characters are exactly the same, like in Fortnite. So, it’s pay to win. If it was just cosmetics, it would be fine.
The problem I have with OW2 compared to something like Multiversus is that for over 5 years the community had being used to heroes been available for everyone. Which for a competitive team game was vital because you know everyone had access to the same tools.
@riceNpea they had to go F2P to compete with apex , fortnite , warzone , valorant , rogue company , paladins , etc it they want to get even half the popularity overwatch used to have
@AdamNovice on the bright side , after playing the OW2 beta several months ago , OW2 is more competitive than OW1 ever was …
wait , that actually makes the situation worse huh ? lol , welp !
So by doing the challenges alone you need 61 days to reach level 55, which is the duration of the battlepass (2 months).
So basically if you miss a day, you get the hero locked, I wonder how do you unlock it afterwards, do the old BPs stay available like avengers, or do they rotate out and you need to fork over 20€ or something to unlock the heroes.
@Deoxyr1bose blizzard says that overwatch 2 will not have any characters that is better than anyone. overwach 1 was about switching character to counter what the enemy team has. but they said overwatch 2 will not be that. they allready changed heroes that hard counters. so that is good.
@brazzios_84 how do you expect them to get payed to make content? if they make an overwatch 2 box game that costs 70 dollars. they get the money for a couple years. but that is not what overwach 2 is. its a live game , and they need money to develope. and new heroes is what people want, so they will make great new heroes that is cheap to buy or you can just grind the new hero so the next month you will unlock it for free if you want, and no hero will be better than any hero.
@Flaming_Kaiser it will not be pay2win. every hero is as good as any hero. if you are really good as bastion, then you can win in any game. it will not be counters anymore. they said it themselves. cassidy dont have the flashbang anymore, its just a sticky bomb, so they are changing things to the better.
@kenshin4ever he shouldn’t have the sticky neither , but i guess it’s too much for blizzard to animate an entirely new ability and program it ; which is why roadhog is still horribly designed in OW2 as a “so-called” tank . They did good with doom though , but it’s because he already had the assets and they just tweaked them .
i really hope OW2 turns out to be legitimately competitive and actually balanced. OW1 started casually with no direction and it was stuck with it ever since , and that caused a lot of problems long-term .
@kenshin4ever I'm sure they'll be fine.
@kenshin4ever I never had the idea that OW was that balanced it was a fun game nothing else. I guess the meta was just nonsense then and man did they nerve some characters into the ground.
But in the end i hate F2P i hate having a job where i dont get payed that what most battlepasses are in the end but now with something as big as a character at the end. Not a skin no a full character where you to grind to get it.
And yes characters should not be locked behind a paywall because one thing is for certain this is bad for the industry. But atleast Activision Blizzard has people like you who defend them these poor multi billion corporate who (almost) dont pay taxes.
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