So far I purchased the Virtual Ticket in 2016, 2017 and 2019.
For me the 2 mayor selling points have always been the BlizzCon livestreams and the Overwatch cosmetics.
I also play WoW and played HotS, Hearthstone and D3, but the goodies for those games were always just a bonus and never a reason for me to get the ticket.
In 2016 and 2017 I considered the price (29,99€) to be high, but still kind of justifiable.
The skins were just Epics and some people seem to think that they are bad, but I really like the colors and still use the Winston skin on a regular base.
My thoughts were “20€ for the stream, 10€ for the skin - that’s much, but the fun I will get out of it is still worth the money”.
In 2018 they increased the price by 10€, but I had no time to watch the BlizzCon live AND they announced that the skin would be obtainable by other means later that year, so I fortunately had an easy time to decide against buying the ticket.
What I only realized later is, that there probably was a good reason why they announced that the Sombra Skin would be available again later on:
They were testing the waters to see how many people buy the ticket to actually watch the streams and how many buy it just to get the skin.
The answer was probably that most people buy it for the skin (or other ingame goodies) cause they didn’t continue that practice the next year.
In 2019 the price stayed at 39,99€, but the game changer for me was that it didn’t come with just 1, but 2 legendary Skins. 20€ for the stream, 10€ per skin - that works out for me
Now we come to the 2020 Virtual Ticket Celebration Collection:
BlizzCon got canceled and replaced with the 2021 BlizzConline.
That probably means that there is less to show and some (if not most of it) will be pre-recorded videos, so the decision to not charge for any of the streams was definitely right
But what the heck is going on with the prices for the ingame goodies?
If you remember: I personally justified my decision to buy the Virtual Ticket by putting a 20€ price tag on the stream and a 10€ price tag on each skin.
Now let’s check what I am getting for my money this year:
Essentials Pack 19,99€:
Coupon for 15% Off a purchase at the Blizzard Gear Store:
Not really interested in that one. I am not a merch guy.
5 Loot Boxes:
I have 110k credits and nothing to spend them on.
30th Anniversary Player Icon and Spray:
Why not just give that for free to anyone who logs into the game during BlizzConline or watches the stream?
The “Essentials Pack” has nothing that I would consider to be “essential”.
Heroic Pack 39,99€:
Raynhardt legendary skin:
Pretty cool, but until now I only get 10€ value for 39,99€.
Epic Pack 59,99€:
If you want to buy 30 days WoW playtime for 20€ instead of 12,99€ this is the bundle for you
Oh, wait.
There are also 3 golden Lootboxes
So for me the “most optimal” bundle would be the Heroic pack, which would give me 5 Loot Boxes, 1 Icon, 1 Spray and a Legendary Reinhardt Skin for 39,99€.
That is exactly what I payed when I pre-ordered the Origins Version of Overwatch - which came with 5 additional Legendary Skins.
Now there are 3 options:
1:
Blizzard doesn’t understand that not all their customers like and/or play all their games/franchises.
2:
Blizzard has lost their marbles.
3:
Blizzard thinks that their customers have lost their marbles.
Unless there will be a huge discount on the Celebration Collection later this year I am giving this one a hard pass