Overwatch 2 wants more money from players. MeinMMO demon Cortyn sees this critically – but even paying players feel cheated during the new event.
Anyone who has read my previous articles already knows my opinion on the mechanics of Battle Passes. To me, they sometimes border on “self-enslavement”, but I have gotten used to it. In games like Dead by Daylight or Overwatch 2, I find them basically okay – because I would play the games anyway. So I don’t mind 10 euros every 6-8 weeks.
In a game that entertains me continuously, I can live with that.
However, I become dissatisfied when I feel like I’m being tricked, for example, if another Battle Pass is activated during an ongoing Battle Pass just to squeeze out a few more euros. It becomes really frustrating when this Battle Pass isn’t enough to get all the available rewards, there’s time pressure, and you have to “cash in again” later if you really want everything.
Exactly this is the glorious idea behind the “Winter Wonderland 2024” in Overwatch 2.
A second Battle Pass – With time pressure and too few rewards
In addition to the current season’s ongoing Battle Pass, which already costs 10 €, you can now spend another 5 € for a second Battle Pass for the Christmas event.
The concept here is that you can earn “Winter Fair Tickets”. A new, temporary currency with which you can buy the rewards of the Christmas event.
Those who do not buy the second Battle Pass can earn 40 of the tickets each week – a total of 120. This takes anywhere from 18 to 36 matches per week – depending on whether you win or just lose, so between 54 and 108 matches for the entire event.
I find it almost more ridiculous that these tickets are limited weekly. Because after the first 40 tickets, that’s it; I can only unlock the next 40 starting December 26, and the last 40 only on January 2.
A time-limited event where progress is also limited weekly. Just wonderful during the Christmas season, when most people have to plan their time strictly anyway and divide it between stressful family gatherings, vacations, or New Year’s celebrations. “Oh, I should farm tickets this week, otherwise I have to play 108 matches in just a few days at the beginning of January” is just what I needed.
The next catch? The only really good Christmas skin, Reinhardt wrapped in Christmas presents, already costs 160 tickets. That’s more tickets than a Free2Play player can earn during that time.
Brilliant concept. It really gets you in the Christmas spirit, and you feel like the developers are gifting you with the Christmas event. Not.
Anyone who buys the small Battle Pass quadruples the ticket earnings – then there are up to 160 per week, totaling 480.
This is still not enough to afford all the rewards.
So, it ensures that not only Free2Play players are disappointed because they cannot afford the prettiest skin, even if they buy nothing else – but paying players also feel cheated because they cannot obtain all the rewards.
The missing tickets can then be purchased through another package in the shop – for a whopping 3,000 Overwatch coins, equivalent to 30 euros. I have no words left on that.
I really wonder every time how these ideas get approved at Blizzard without someone critically questioning whether this is really a good idea.
Free according to the motto: If everyone is dissatisfied, namely paying and F2P players, then the dissatisfaction is at least nicely balanced.
I could rant about this for a long time. For instance, that the expensive Reinhardt gift skin is just a “recolor” of the cardboard skin. Or that Overwatch now sells weapon skins that are almost as expensive as normal hero skins – but those were so buggy that they were immediately removed from the shop.
I would really be happy if logging into Overwatch 2 didn’t become more and more an exciting “And what new money-making scheme have they found now?” but the fun and the entertaining events were in the foreground again.
Blizzard demonstrated they can still produce such things last year with the very cool “Prop Hunt” mode, even if it was almost 1:1 taken from other games.
And yes, I am aware that other games have already had and implemented such “mini Battle Pass” ideas. I still get upset about it because somewhere I still hope that Blizzard won’t jump on every stupid monetization idea.
It would really be nice if this hope could be fulfilled again. Maybe in 2024.
