As Overwatch 2 continues its onslaught of $25 skins, its director reveals Blizzard wasn't sure if cosmetics alone could fund the game

20.03.2024 - 11:21 / gamesradar.com / Aaron Keller / Catherine Lewis

At this point, Overwatch 2 has become notorious for its expensive cosmetics. It's not at all unusual to see skins available to buy that cost roughly $25, which is a considerable price for a single in-game outfit. To put it into perspective, that's $5 more than the price of the original Overwatch's standard edition back before the free-to-play sequel replaced it.

The sequel's alteration to the first-person-shooter's monetization certainly raised eyebrows at launch, but it wasn't just the players who had questions. In a recent roundtable interview attended by GamesRadar+, game director Aaron Keller revealed that Blizzard "had some worries" regarding whether the game could actually be successful when relying on cosmetics alone. 

"When you're developing the way a game is going to fund itself, it can get really complex fast," Keller explains. "I think originally we had some worries about whether Overwatch 2 as a purely cosmetic game, when you have the ability to get cosmetics for a whole roster of heroes, was going to be successful."

These concerns haven't stopped Blizzard from unleashing pricey skins galore, though. It's been pointed out that the most recent ones – the Cowboy Bebop x Overwatch 2 skins – cost as much as the entire anime series on Blu-ray. To clarify, that's one single skin, not even the full collection. Needless to say, buying the whole set would be a rather considered purchase. 

There's good news for free-to-play Overwatch 2 players, however, as it's been confirmed that from season 10 onwards, all new heroes will be made playable for everyone immediately. Previously, only those who bought the Premium Battle Pass would be able to get their hands on the latest characters straight away – everyone else had to gradually unlock them through the Free Battle Pass. Along with this change, any older characters you haven't already unlocked will become instantly available, too – the only exception is for new players, who must complete the first-time user experience before everything unlocks. 

"After about a year and a half of releasing seasons with heroes in them and without heroes in them, I think we had enough data to see that the game can be successful without having heroes in the Battle Pass," Keller notes in the roundtable interview. "We're confident that by taking them out, we'll be able to continue to be successful."

Be sure to take a look at our roundup of the 25 best FPS games for some top recommendations of new games to play. 

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