šŸ’„ ATTN BLIZZARD - Regarding OWL skins leaving, cross platform issue

General Discussion
21

This is not correct Gunky. Only tokens earned from watching Overwatch League matches are distributed to all platforms that is linked to the same BattleNet account. Any token purchases and any skins owned are exclusive to the platform you purchased it on.

22

Thank you for correcting me! I have never spent (wasted?) money on Overwatch league tokens and only have experience with earning them via watching the streams. I knew about the purchased skins being exclusive to the platform it was purchased on, but based on my (limited) experience, I assumed it only made sense that OWL tokens purchased on any bnet account would be appropriately distributed to all platforms linked to that account.

This seems like either an oversight or a deliberate cash grab. I sincerely hope itā€™s the former.

1 Like
23

I also feel this is how it should be.

24

I think this is the first step for Blizzard to try and get people who have saved up their free OWL tokens to start spending them. The problem is there isnā€™t anything interesting to use them on.

If Blizzard wants to make more money off of OWL tokens they are probably going to introduce a lot more exclusive / limited timed cosmetics during season 3 in order to prevent as many people possible from saving up their free tokens.

I know a guy who has just over 1k OWL tokens thanks to the streams. He has not spent one penny on tokens.

I wouldnā€™t be surprised if they bring in the grey OWL skins for all heroes into the in-game league store at some point this year for a limited time.
The Lucio emote looks pretty lonely in there currently.

1 Like
25

I feel Gunky is into something here however. Would love for Blizzard to chime in.

If the rewarded OWL tokens work at the battletag level and are available for all platforms, why canā€™t the purchased tokens be the same?

26

This is because when it comes to promotions like those on Twitch, rewards are distributed to all platforms that is linked to a single BattleNet account. That is called promotional distribution. However once something is received on a specific platform, on a specific account, it stays on that account.

Purchases, including OWL tokens, are managed separately on each platform through their own online store, BattleNet Shop, PlayStation Store, and the Microsoft Store. This is because licensing on console allows the console manufacturers to get a part of the profits from the sales of games, downloadable content, and microtransactions. Now some games are working with console manufacturers to make games have cross-progression features where you can access the content from one platform to another, Destiny 2 is a good example, however even then that cross-progression only works if you keep the appropriate accounts linked (in the case of Destiny 2, linking your Bungie account to Steam, Xbox Live, and/or PlayStation Network) so there is still some money to be earned by the consoles for sales on their platformā€™s digital store if the user uses that platform as their primary platform and it keeps a user tied to that platform even if they switch platforms to play a certain game on primarily.

I believe the Overwatch Development Team and Blizzard need to make a heighten priority to allow Overwatch to be cross-progression compatible. As I explained, the technical and business issues are challenge, but it is now proven possible with games like Fortnite, Minecraft, Destiny 2, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

3 Likes
27

Thanks for all the info Wyoming.

You would think that for the time being, they would be able to apply the OWL skins manually after they verified you own them or possibly the tokens to purchase the skins.

I recently asked for my tokens on PS4 since I own the OWL 2019 Season Pass and never received my 200 tokens. I was told they generate codes for those tokens but currently they had no way of generating those codesā€¦

So there is a way

28

This. All of this. I really hope Blizzard considers the information here and looks into a way to make something like this possible.

29

Iā€™m hoping Blizzard can come up with a solution.

30

Blizzard just doing their usual FOMO cash-grab business tactic. Increased effectiveness the more platforms you play on.

1 Like
31

Wow Wyomingā€¦

Iā€™m fuming. I decided to buy the skins on Xboxā€¦ I purchased the $100 pack and did not get my tokensā€¦ what a fiasco.

32

So that is still happening. Please reach out to Microsoft Support for this one. They should be able to get you fixed up to at least refund your money.

33

my mans about to drop 300 hunnid on recolors RIP