They’ve also had plenty of time to tinker with how they reward players to ensure the product doesn't feel too exploitative. Many of the most successful premium free-to-play games - like Fortnite, Valorant, and Apex Legends - have mastered this approach.As is the case in other forms of media, selling something once is far less profitable than hooking consumers on reliable, recurring spending over long periods of time, whether that be a monthly subscription or a $1 to $5 microtransaction.But the slow creep of mobile monetization - and the financial opportunities it affords - has come to dominate the entire games market.The original Overwatch launched in a different era, when very few console games were free-to-play and premium game developers like Blizzard were used to selling products upfront and tacking on light monetization.This is in part because gamers often compare the way gaming products used to make money with how they do now. Many games that have transitioned to a live service model, like Bungie's Destiny 2, have been met with player backlash.
But in place of Overwatch’s old monetization methods is now a system that feels more geared toward keeping players playing as long as possible and also spending as much money as possible.īlizzard was never going to be able to avoid this.Randomized item drops have been scrutinized by regulators worldwide, and Blizzard even skipped the Belgian and Dutch markets when launching Diablo Immortal due to loot box restrictions.That’s all well and good, and it makes perfect sense for Blizzard to get with the times, especially by dropping support for loot boxes.Blizzard now sells a seasonal battle pass, and the studio has dropped its maligned and predatory loot box system for an in-game shop that sells character skins and other cosmetic items directly in exchange for in-game currency.And as you might suspect, those methods now include many of the familiar monetization strategies popularized by Fortnite and its contemporaries. Overwatch’s new economy is familiar, but is it fair? Blizzard’s free-to-play transition means Overwatch 2 must make money through means other than upfront cost. And the early sentiment toward this transition underscores some major hurdles facing the game industry and its current love affair with the live service model. As such, the game is now free to play.īut now that Overwatch 2 is out in the wild, after a rough launch resulting in multiple days of connection and login problems, players are grappling with a new realization: While the gameplay is near-identical, Overwatch now sports a vastly different in-game economy. As I first noted over the summer, the reboot of the once-popular hero shooter has been more about restructuring the game’s business model than about adding more content to justify a new price tag. Overwatch’s new economy exposes old problemsīlizzard’s long-awaited Overwatch 2 is not your typical sequel.
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