No game even a f2p one is created for people to enjoy for free. The developers always impliment something they intend for you to spend money on. The community complaining that they can’t easily earn skins for free is such a spoiled and entitled attitude it’s embarassing for the rest of us.
The reason blizzard has priced the skins as high as they have is because they’re giving away premium currency for you to earn in game for free. That privilege wasn’t given with the main intention being the ability to earn skins for free, but rather to act as a discount you can earn for participating in the playerbase to go towards skins you spend real money on.
When you factor how much premium currency you could earn in the same timeframe that blizzard was releasing premium skins during ow1 lifecycle the price you’d pay for ow2 skins with your earned premium discount would be about the same price premium skins used to be.
The reason blizzard has done it like that is to allow whales the option to buy up skins immediately for a higher price making blizzard more money obviously.
And yes I know you have to buy currency in set amounts, that is also done purposely so that your discounts don’t really apply until you’ve purchased multiple skins and you’ve got enough left over credits to either purchase a smaller amount of currency for your next skin or have enough to buy the next skin out right. When you take into consideration that multiple skins would be the price of a new game it makes sense and is fair that blizzard would design it like that for a game they gave you free access to.
Yet another Blizzard employee here to do damage control. It’s like every hour or so we get these posts…that tells me people aren’t buying skins as much as they hoped they would. This is called panicking.
You fail to realize that the whales are a minority in f2p games, and that the games depend on the free players to stay populated. Increased queue times and imbalanced matchmaking are both the result of not appealing to f2p players well enough, both of those things will eventually make paying players quit too. Every single game ever made has a reward system in its core gameplay loop, for OW2 that system is incredibly underwhelming and unmotivating. The people expressing their concerns with this system are doing it because they are worried for the game’s longevity.
Anyway I hope old Bobby paid you well for this shill post.
All I am seeing is the alleged reasoning behind a) high prices and b) earning premium currency in tiny amounts. Aside from that I am failing to see the justification for this. Remember this isn’t Fortnite wherein you have one character to play (Overwatch has many). Also, Overwatch is a FPS and players do not see their skins during gameplay generally. There’s also the issue with claiming X% discounts on shop items when the item supposedly being discounted cannot even be bought (they may have fixed this realizing its illegality).
Here’s a simple reason to lower prices: more money as more players would actually buy skins. The ridiculous pricing has drove players to essentially boycott the shop.
Newsflash, In OW1 they also gave away free currency. This new monetization system here is exorbitant and only caters to whales. The amount of currency they “give away” is nowhere near what it was in OW1, which is the main issue here. The skins cost too much, and there’s not enough currency being given to counteract that.
Even if they doubled the amount of currency given to players if they completed every single challenge, it would still take 3 seasons of playing in order to unlock ONE legendary skin, where previously in OW1 you’d get probably 3 legendary skins in one season, maybe more.
Skins in ow1 were earned through random lootboxes, currency was given as a way to ensure you’d eventually get what you wanted. The amount of real money you’d spend in ow1 to do that is just as much as they’re charging now you just failed to realize that.
Sorry but if you really think, that some people at blizzard would go to the forums (not Reddit or bigger platforms!) for “damage control”… then you cant be helped. No one cares about the forum. Is as likely as that you are a Riot employee trying to sabotage the game… its the same level of stupidity.
The real problem is that people still thing that skins that are essential to play the game. I have over 5000 hours in OW1 and got most of the skins for free but i dont care since i enjoy core gameplay.
We are still in S1, shop is crap, BP is ok ish, wait and see how the PVE is going to be monetize and then we will talk. I assume we will need around 30 USD for BP and PVE episodic content
Just because the amount of money would be the same doesn’t mean its fair to completely gut the return rate of skin acquisition. You just proved my point here. You could actually get the skins in a reasonable time frame in OW1, now you basically don’t get skins unless its the ones the give for free because the botched the launch so bad. This just leads to everyone using the same skin and no variety in game.
I don’t want a free game.
I want the devs to get paid. I want continued support.
But I also think that the ways OW2 has implimented its monetization is scummy. They utilized bad faith practices, which does not lead me to believe that they are offering good faith prices.
OW1 sold for like $60 to get everything.
OW2 launch was thrown together in a year, adding much less than OW1 launch did, yet $60 doesn’t go half as far.
They’ve been working on PvE a lot, and they should get paid for those hours. HOWEVER, I think everyone is expecting that PvE will already be monetized some other way. Why are we expected to fund PvE support twice?
I agree, the total price is the same.
The difference is $20 in OW1 gave 24 loot boxes. Averaging at least:
2 legendary skins
4 epics
6 rare victory poses
7 rare skins
12 player icons
and like 60 sprays + voice lines.
$20 in OW2 gives you 1 skin, 1 charm, 1 voice line, and 1 spray. That’s the best bundle price you get.
Though it goes against my case that’s not actually true. About 5 years ago I made a post to the d3 forums asking for a list of features in the sequel and in it I wrote my account name and number, and upon checking the post the next day someone at blizzard had edited my post so that my account name in the post became a link to my account. Checked on it again 30 minutes later and it had been reverted back to text. They do monitor the forums.
Jesus Christ, the amount of bootlicking.
No, wanting a fair and reasonable way to earn cosmetics is not “spoiled and entitled”.
60 coins. You can earn 60 coins in one week. that’s about 60 cents worth of premium currency and you act like this is generous?
You will have to play 32 weeks to get enough for one skin.
And that isn’t even the biggest issue. You can’t even get a single voiceline, spray, etc. for that amount.
That’s just a ridiculous claim. Not to mention that again, skins aren’t the only thing.
the fact that you defend this practice alone tells me everything I need to know.
You really act like all these scummy practices and awful ‘rewards’ are Blizzard being generous.
We really are doomed if people think that way.
Wrong. Developers want F2P games to be enjoyable and profitable, that is how to keep your playerbase.
True. It is F2P after all.
Agreed. Most of the users are exaggerating. Skins are just cosmetics.
Well, yes, but they give very little currency.
I did not think about it, but you are right.
I do not understand this paragraph
Every F2P monetization is done around whales. Whales keep F2P games alive.
Agreed. Some people want to spend the exact amount, but it will be more expensive because it is likely they want any other future skin.
This is what people do not understand. The game is free. You do not need skins. OW1 was a paid game with microtransactions, you could get all new skins, but you needed to grind a lot. I have played since Sombra release and I still miss some base legendary skins.
Now, I do not like F2P model. I would have preferred to pay for the game and its content, like if they were expansions. Paying 40 for the game and 20 each season for the possibility to earn coins by playing and purchase cosmetics.
Anyone who knows anything about game development knows its expensive. They should also know that in order for Overwatch 2 to continue getting new content, whether that be modes, heroes or maps, that the game needs to make a profit. If it costs Blizzard money to run, and generates little to no income to justify the expenditure, then it will be shuttered.
So charging $20 for a legendary skin is acceptable in my eyes for that reason alone.
People are entitled to feel differently of course, and if you don’t think a skin is worth $20, then don’t buy it. No one is going to guilt you into buying a skin, no one is going to bully you because you play with vanilla skins or whatever skins you unlocked via loot boxes or through events in Overwatch 1.
But people need to stop harping on Blizzard for trying to make sure their game remains profitable.
Games that have unlock methods for new characters allow you to get credits between sessions to be used for that purpose and don’t tie it to an unrelated product like a battlepass or force you to be a “new player” every season.
