I bought overwatch 1 in 2016 for 60 US dollars. I’ve always enjoyed playing it with my friends. The current state of Overwatch 2 has essentially stolen the game I bought for 60 US dollars and flushed it down the toilet. That version of the game does not exist anymore, and I’m left with this incredibly predatory monetization model, with no meaningful sense of progression what so ever, without buying into a terribly designed battle pass. The core game of overwatch is still enjoyable, and it’s free now, that’s great. I paid 60 US dollars for a vastly superior version of this game though, and it’s been completely removed from the playing field.
This is unacceptable blizzard, your greed, mediocrity, and predatory, anti-consumer marketing tactics aren’t going to go unnoticed.
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It’s been only a month now but the old playerbase mostly left already.
You’re not the only one to notice.
Right now the game is still somehow popular for some reason but when the next trendy free-to-play comes out, we will finally be able to bid Overwatch 2 farewell.
But we won’t ever get Overwatch back. And even if they try to sell it to me again, Blizzard can go bankrupt for all I care.
They really messed up.
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uh the game is free to play… meaning you pay $0 to log in and play it. it also has the same game mechanics as OW1 just 1 less player per team & a significantly better engine to run on… the only thing that costs money is the cosmetics… which have 0 impact on gameplay…
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Okay, thanks for your input. See you around.
My boi, it is a great opportunity for competitors to create mega fps game with ow1 rewarding model.
I would rather pay for game copy/monthly sub to have same system as in ow1.
Playing ow 1.2 is a waste of time. Game will be dead within few months 
GG blizz! As always!
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The effect on gameplay is the aesthetic aspects are the only reward system and without being rewarded people have no incentive to play.
Pretend you understand basic human psychology and don’t just brainlessly parrot back ignorance.
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A few of your like-minded friends is not most of the old playerbase lol. If you can provide actual evidence that most of the old playerbase has left then that’d be swell, but if you can’t, do everyone a favour and stop spreading misinformation.
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Imagine every NBA 2K## player who buys the newest $60 EA game and its physical value after like a year goes to crud sitting in a warehouse of Gamestop gathering dust. That’s a waste of $60. Honestly, the $40 → $60 was honestly a waste as well. You only really wanted the $40 base as the +$20 wasn’t really worth the rest.
In contrast, with OW2 model the time you spent for cosmetics was huge value going into OW2 because you have something new people can never have. A truck load of old stuff for cheap. I consider my $40 investment for OW1 to be very well invested. Especially now with new changes where I amassed a huge 30k+ credits that carry over and a list of cosmetics for every character I’m happy with where I can probably go the next 5yrs without ever wanting anything for the characters I have.
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I want to believe him but I know there’s no way in hell “most” have left. It’s not logical.
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Why would you want to believe them? It’s just more doomer misinformation.
The truth is that the game has never been better, not since 2016.
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I want to believe him because if that were the case they might make changes that would cause me to re-install the game if it was true. But as it stands, I’ve been playing video games since NES was new and everybody still had an atari, and I have never had less fun playing a game than I did Overwatch 2.
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I thought 5v5 was great-- until I played it longer than a week.
It’s too fast and you have even less impact and even more team reliant.
6v6 set a great pace for the game, and that’s gone now.
So imo, even the core game sucks now.
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I’d argue early 2017 was alright as well, but I’m otherwise with you 100%.
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Actually, I think being free to play is kinda lame. I’d rather have to buy the game to play it, to at least, avoid this bunch of toxic fornite kids.
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You’re completely missing the point. I paid for a game that had meaningful progression systems that don’t exist anymore. I can’t go back to the game that had level progression from just playing quick play. I’m left with a free game that has zero meaningful progression systems without buying into an insanely predatory battle pass model. Playing the free core game is all fine and good, but there’s plenty of people that find value in some form of progression, which blizzard completely gutted in overwatch 2 outside of buying into a battle pass. The free track is laughable in terms of feeling like you’re making any progress in earning cosmetics. It’s completely geared to make you spend your money every few months. Which I get, it’s free to play now, but in its current state the incentive to buy into the battle pass is completely worthless. It’s hilarious how bad the rewards are for a 20 dollar buy in. Especially if they lock new hero’s behind it in the future, which legitimately makes it a pay to win business model.
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They only doubled their active player numbers with free-to-play.
Only double.
We went from 800,000 daily players to 1,600,000. And that number is dropping due to monetisation, bugs, unatractive gameplay…
It’s been a month. Only a month. We shouldn’t be able to see people growing tired of the game.
And yet there are numerous exemples of it. Even reddit and its moderation trying to only get positive feedback is unable to follow such a backlash.
They messed up.
And a good portion of people playing the game right now are either people who came back from the goats era who are quickly getting tired and free-to-play players who discovers it and are playing it until they find something better. Which isn’t hard.
And the people actually enjoying the game for some reason don’t accept criticism and are actively working towards making newcomers or disappointed players leave the game.
I have no doubt financially speaking Overwatch 2 is already successful. But on the long run, I wonder if Blizzard games will be successful. Because right now, they could release the best game ever and most people won’t care.
They erased a perfectly working game to push us towards an unfun buggy mess.
And they can fix all the bugs they want, at the end of the day, the switch to 5v5 was received with mixed feelings.
If Overwatch 1 became free-to-play, it would have been more popular.
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The amount of people that defend this type of video game development is honestly astonishing. What’s the motive behind it? it’s blatantly clear to see how Activision/Blizzard just wants to squeeze as much profit out of its player base with providing the least amount of value possible. It’s predatory at worst and lazy at best. It’s great if you like the game, but defending corporations for creating a mediocre product like this baffles me to no end.
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i totally agree, 5v5 ruined the game. it feels like cod now
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I’m with you OP, I want the superior product back. I want OW1 back. But that’s not going to happen, so I just refuse to play the inferior product, and therefore I refuse to do what Activision Blizzards wants… giving them money.
5v5 is vastly inferior, and they actually removed content from OW1… then called it OW2. They removed content and delivered an inferior product.
If they would have basically kept OW1, but just added Battle Pass, added new heroes, added new maps, content, etc… they would have kept me. Because they would have kept OW1 and just added onto it. That’s not what the decided to do. So they are going to lose customers because they decided to deliver a watered down product.
Their loss. If I were still playing OW1… if it still existed… I would be far far more likely to drop $20 on a skin. But why would I pay for a skin in an inferior game to OW1? I don’t think I’ve played in 3 weeks or longer at this point. I’m done. Until they acknowledged they are bringing back the things they removed, including 6v6, the superior game-state.
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Yea people do that in general though. There is some weird wiring in people’s brains where they tie criticism to a thing that they like into criticism to them as a person somehow. Maybe some of those tied up some of their ego into this game and take it the same way as if you said their breath is all the wrong kinds of funk.
I won’t say if the game is better or worse. I don’t have the secret info hidden at corporate showing x players averaging y dollars for income vs OW1.
But what I can say is, I don’t even bother playing this game unless my friends are online to queue together. Wasn’t the case with OW1. 5v5 is fun, but the people who play it make it intolerable. Winning in OW2 feels less fun. I was kind of hoping to see some intriguing ideas and concept for the PVE modes but honestly I think I’ve written it off as vapor ware.
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