In Overwatch, characters have always been free; however, Overwatch 2 is seemingly looking to change that.
Overwatch 2, which launches on October 4th, will require players to get new heroes via the free track of the Battle Pass. This was learned through an update on the game’s ‘Watchpoint Pack,’ which is a purchasable content bundle that gets early adopters free skins, in-game currency and access to the season one premium battle pass.
Addressing some incomplete info posted early about our Overwatch 2 Battle Pass – we'll be sharing all details ahead of launch, but want to confirm that new Overwatch 2 heroes will be available on the free track of the Battle Pass.
— Jon Spector (@Spex_J) September 8, 2022
The Watchpoint Pack states that premium battle pass users will get access to the unrevealed, teased hero ‘Kiriko.’ Following the notice of the unintentional leak, the Overwatch team removed mention of the character’s name. However, this has led people to suspect that new heroes will not be able to unlock unless you make some progression on the free track of the battle pass. Therefore, if you get the paid variant, you’ll get the hero immediately.
Overwatch 2 is a free game, so it makes sense that they’ve had to change the formula. The worry here, though, is that you’ll only be able to play characters via the progression model of a battle pass. Games like Apex Legends and Smite require players to simply use in-game currency to purchase new characters. Another fear is competitive gameplay. Sometimes, characters in Overwatch are pretty essential in some team comps, so it’ll be difficult for some players who’ve missed parts of a season to jump in and feel at home when they aren’t able to play certain characters.
It’s worth noting that there’s been no official word from Blizzard about this yet.
Source: The Verge
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