I really want to believe that Blizzard won’t stick to this monetization plan, and eventually introduce kinder, less predatory monetization as new seasons come, but I feel like I’m having too high of expectations.
The way they did monetization just really rubs me the wrong way. In a way, it turns me off from playing the game just because it’s that hard for me to overlook. I know they’re just cosmetics and I’m probably making a mountain out of a molehill but after spending all that time in Overwatch 1’s kinder world, I guess I’m just taking this transition to F2P roughly.
I just don’t think the way things are should be the way they should be. I get they need to make money for a F2P title to be substainable, but I’ve played a lot of other F2P titles with much more kind monetization that make money just fine, so it’s a real shame to see OW2 going down this road when it doesn’t even feel necessary.
With the rant over with, do you think things will ever get better, or is this how it’s going to be?
EDIT: I should clarify, it’s not the Battle Pass that bugs me. That tends to be pretty standard for most games. It’s the fact that there’s no method of earning most of the stuff outside of the battle pass via in-game methods. Yes, in theory you can grind those coins to eventually buy something, but that will take quite some time. If they aren’t to adjust the prices, I think the coins should be easier to acquire, in larger amounts.
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Battle pass is almost certainly staying. Based on how profitable it is they at some point will mess around with cost and what the rewards are tho
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If they’ve got enough people buying at the current pricing, it’s unlikely.
Unless the population dwindles unsustainably and they have direct data showing the monetization is a major factor for people leaving, then even with enough people buying they might change it.
I wouldn’t hold my breath, unless you want to suffocate though.
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I don’t mind the battle pass honestly. That’s pretty standard. It’s just the fact that all the non-battle pass items you could previously get through in-game means are now being charged for IRL money. I’ve played a lot of games with micro transactions but pretty much ALL of them have some way to earn items for free. Not this one 
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You have a point, but in WoW was a similar situation with a lot of players quitting, but their profits only went up with more ingame shop options. This means, the players staying are the ones that spent by far the most. Blizz stated a while ago that player numbers are not the most important factors anymore for that reason.
Is it unhealthy and unfair towards players that can’t or don’t want to spend a lot of money? Yes. Is it abusive towards players that spend too much? Yes, but Bobby really doesn’t care.
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I’m 90% sure it will only get worse. It always does.
And yes, I agree that it just feels bad, even though I don’t care all too much about cosmetics. I never begrudged them the $40 I paid for Overwatch 1, but now that they’ve literally taken away the game we paid for and replaced it with a game that is, frankly, just a little bit worse, the extra little sting of also cancelling virtually all the cosmetic rewards just feels spiteful, and it’s hard to not resent them for it.
Maybe I’ll feel different when all the PvE stuff is added (assuming we don’t also have to rent that on a seasonal basis), which will maybe give Overwatch 2 a reason to exist. But for now, between the various changes that make the game shockingly unbalanced, the content I enjoyed that’s been removed, the removal of fun rewards, and the FOMO-based manipulation they use to try to get us to buy those rewards, the existence of Overwatch 2 is just an all around negative experience.
no lmao.
The only improvement I think there’s a small chance is them lowering new heroes from 55 to 30 or 25.
they wont change the prices.
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Prices, I don’t know about. Earning credits may become easier, however, if/when queues take a turn for the worse and Blizzard find themselves with a choice between player attrition and better incentivizing Flex Queue.
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Yeah credits becoming easier to acquire would be my ideal solution if they’re not going to mess with the pricing. Give players a method of treating themselves without having to throw cash at literally everything. I think that would the make long term time investment in the game feel better.
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i think they can afford to stick with it even if it doesnt do well. remember this is a billion dollar company that can sacrifice some ips. they’re just total greed mode sometimes
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In WoW they really only need to keep the profits high enough to justify the upkeep, OW is a little different as they need a plentiful and stable enough population across the ranks to keep the game functional.
If PvE is good and makes bank, they might not necessarily worry about keeping the PvP population up. For now though a healthy PvP playerbase is their only playerbase.
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They made the battle pass such a central part of pvp, that I don’t think they have to worry about that. Without it, your choices in the game are playing weeks for a new hero and months to earn $5 worth of currency to buy a single basic skin.
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I wish I was old enough to get into WoW when it was good. I always wanted to be in a party doing raids or whatever BS you do in WoW. Looks like I legitimately missed that chance.
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The new WoW classic expansion just started like 3 weeks ago, it’s the old game from 2009. It’s a perfect time to get into it if you want.
I think it will. They probably used those high prices so that when they eventually lower them the players would find them appealing.
It all depends on the shop sales. If there’s enough whales spending beaucoup benjamins, then nothing will change. Or it will get worse.
Hoping they’ll figure out that they’re in a “step over a dollar to make a dime” situation, and are throwing away long term profits for short term gains.
Suspect the Halloween Terror event might be the big litmus test. If there’s no chance to earn coins or cosmetics as rewards, think a lot of people will revolt against the system.
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I think they will keep the current pricing, but increase the amount of currency you can earn. But I don’t think they will buff it enough to matter.
60 currency a week is such a pathetically small number, they could buff it by literally 1000% and it would still suck (600 credits a week aka ~1 legendary skin a month).
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The overall model is not going to change, unless battle passes fall out of fashion some day in the future. I could see them becoming more generous with coins, but that’s about it.
They also made surveys with higher and lower prices.
The BP will definitely be staying as is or improving, the shop and credits earned via challenges are the question.
They’re egregious.
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