For the latest skin in Overwatch 2, you have to pay 40 €. Is the skin worth it? And why is the community so angry?
Season 7 of Overwatch 2 has just started. Fitting for October, the whole game now has a Halloween look, and the horror this time is strongly inspired by Diablo IV.
Already the trailer showed some interesting skins for popular characters – but no skin attracted as much attention as the “Lilith” skin for Moira. This transforms the popular support character into Lilith from Diablo IV – along with some new voicelines.
This is how the community reacts: However, there is an outcry within the community. Because anyone who wants to have Moira’s Lilith skin has to pay 40 €. The Lilith skin is part of a hefty bundle that also includes two other skins and plenty of other stuff, including the Battle Pass and enough in-game currency to buy two additional Battle Passes.
That the community is not very enthusiastic is evident both in the official forum and on the Overwatch subreddit and on Twitter. Just a few impressions:
What is actually in the bundle? If you take a closer look at the bundle, it is, given the other prices in the shop, a pretty good deal. Before you tear me apart, calculate that:
Let’s leave out all the “small stuff”, like the 20 Battle Pass skips, spray logos, and highlight intros. That is just filler material and nobody really cares about it.
You then have the Battle Pass for the current season (10 €) and 2,000 Overwatch coins (20 €) – so already 30 € in value. For regular players, that is definitely worth considering, as with the 2,000 Overwatch coins you can buy the next two Battle Passes as well. These 30 € would be spent anyway by an active player who buys the Battle Pass every season.
So there are the “additional” 10 €, for which you then get 3 skins:
- The legendary “Lilith” skin for Moira.
- The legendary “Inarius” skin for Pharah.
- The epic “Pumpkin” skin for Bastion.
Anyone who actively plays and plans to continue doing so gets at least two really detailed skins with their own voicelines and a cool Diablo look for “10 € extra”. For all who already know that they want to play for at least 2 more Battle Passes in the future, this is a solid offer.
Or to summarize: Anyone who actively plays and buys the Battle Pass every month and likes playing Moira or Pharah has a pretty solid deal here.
I don’t want to defend the whole system at all. That the skin can only be obtained from the bundle is a disappointment that I can fully understand. Because no matter how you turn it – if you want this skin, you have to pay 40 € or hope that it will eventually be available individually in the shop.
I’m also aware that Blizzard has consciously marketed this as a “carrot in front of the nose”. The Lilith skin was promoted in the trailer, and making it available only through the most expensive bundle is a deliberate decision to get more money.
Is that greedy?
Definitely.
Is it really as bad as people are making it right now?
I don’t think so.
Ultimately, this is about a single skin in a game where you only see your characters’ hands 99 % of the time anyway.
When you think about it rationally, it is of course “insane” to spend 40 € on cosmetic stuff. With that money, you could also grab 1-2 smaller, good games on Steam.
It’s a shame that the (subjectively) best skin of the season is behind a 40 € paywall. But to put it casually: Didn’t you all expect this anyway? This is how most Free2Play games work nowadays, and from this perspective, you have to consider Overwatch 2 as well.
It doesn’t make it any better, of course. But at least it’s more understandable.
Someone at Blizzard must have calculated that they will make more money by selling the skin in a 40 € bundle instead of offering it individually for 10 €, 15 €, or 20 € in the shop.
I mean, this has become commonplace in gaming. Because where do premium skins, the really special outfits or pre-order mounts usually go in games? In the most expensive bundle available. Then you pay 20-40 € on top of the base price of the game “just to have the cool skin”. It’s no different here – except that the base game is Free2Play.
If you don’t like this: Vote with your wallets. Don’t buy it. Then the skin will surely land as an individual offer in the shop sooner or later.
The whole skin topic causes Overwatch 2 – once again – to start a new season with a negative connotation. And this, despite the fact that the game is actually doing a lot of things right right now. Because the new map, the Sombra rework, and the new event mode are really fun.
It’s just a shame that Blizzard “in passing” ruins the good points again and overshadows everything once more with the questionable pricing policy.
More news about Overwatch 2 will be available at BlizzCon 2023 – in just a few weeks.
