Why aren’t the original owl skins purchasable anymore? I prefer the original (ow1) look of the heroes so no idea why the option to purchase them was removed as well as the fact that they’re still viewable if you filter owl in skins. Doesn’t really make sense why blizzard would do this as I imagine many other players would want to buy the original owl skins but can’t anymore. Blizzard just ending a way to make more money from owl tokens for literally no reason?
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They’re probably going to be altered to “OWCS” skins with OWCS exclusive ones coming for prize pools.
I highly doubt that tbh, they will most likely alter the ow2 character models for those skins. I guess they just dumped the original owl skins for good. Just wish they would make them purchasable again as I see no reason why they wouldn’t be.
This is because they still need to be available in the hero gallery for players that have them unlocked. Just like how you can filter for “Special” cosmetics and find BlizzCon skins that can no longer be obtained.
Correct, they need to be viewable for players that have them unlocked and still viewable for players that don’t have them unlocked but why can we no longer purchase them? and only the ow2 variants? I remember them being purchasable like a year ago for a discounted 100 league tokens idk why they removed that option and I want them to be purchasable again, make them the same price idc just have it available.
The opportunity to purchase OW1 OWL cosmetics ended on March 7, 2023 with a 3-week’s advance notice they’d be leaving the shop via Twitter:
(Btw, there was no major advance notice/social media post for when they removed the original 2018 SF, LA, and FL skins. The only confirmation was this notice by the former forum MVP a week before they were removed.)
The price increase from 100 to 150 OWL tokens happened with the launch of OW2 (Oct 4, 2022), the same day they also increased the price of OWL tokens by 20%.
They likely removed the OW1 OWL skins from the shop to avoid confusion, as the non-OW2 skins didn’t have a modifier to the name. If you wanted to buy the “Overwatch 2 London Spitfire” skin for Tracer in the hero gallery, you’d first scroll to “London Spitfire” for Tracer, and possibly mistake it for the OW2 model.
But more realistically, they removed them because they finally had the OW2 models ready, and having them both available seemed superfluous. It would clutter the OWL Shop page, too. Probably a similar reason to removing the access to your competitive season data for OW1.
They’re trying to differentiate OW2 as a separate game from OW1 by quietly removing parts of OW1 when they can. The skins will still be in the hero gallery because they have to be for owners to equip them, but they don’t want to sell them anymore after being available for 5 years.
We should be getting an announcement soon regarding the OW2 OWL skins going away, as well. Not sure if OWL tokens will transfer/convert to whatever they plan with OWCS. I’m guessing they won’t, so the OWL tokens today will be a “use it or lose it” sort of situation. It’s more a matter of how similarly related the OWCS entity is with its former OWL self, as a business entity. They probably wouldn’t want to honor old credits for their new product. Kinda like how OWL tokens purchased through Nintendo Switch are not in your inventory when logged in on other platforms.
Regardless of what they decide, we’ll know more in a couple weeks as they ramp up for broadcasting the OWCS matches and announce any new viewership incentive programs.