A reporter noted in the Overwatch 2 beta that skins were slightly more expensive than their predecessor.
Overwatch 2 has been on the lips of the large player base after Blizzard announced with cymbals and hype this installment in development, for which it has many plans. Of course, not all the changes that the beta version has brought with it, which has already been recently tested by fans, have been beneficial to them.
The realism of Overwatch 2
Perhaps it is worth mentioning that one of the strongest points of the shooter is that it has presented great improvements in terms of its graphics, taking into account that Overwatch -its predecessor- had already been considered innovative for 2016, year it was released. In fact, the landscapes that the franchise initially showed attracted a lot of attention from its fans because the developers concentrated on giving the scenarios a certain realism. Among them we could see striking images of important cities -and, as expected, referents of popular culture-, while the lighting details gave them a better appearance; even the latter played in favor of accessibility for users, since not only would there be a more detailed focus on the background during the battle, but the level would increase or decrease depending on whether it was day or night.
Although Overwatch deserves its respective merit for giving it a much more elaborate visual experience, not everything has been positive. And with the latter we mean the heroes, who also had their own evolution. Similarly, it was the perfect opportunity to bring some of Overwatch’s most iconic characters to the fore. Nevertheless, Blizzard made serious mistakes with heroes like Mercywho had a lot of criticism from the players for being considered inaccessible and with skills that hindered her, far from being a support in combat teams as the company had claimed.
Fortunately, it seems that Blizzard has moved to follow many of their fans’ comments, but this could also mean a change for your pockets.
Overwatch 2 prices increased relative to the original game
As we already mentioned, there were a number of changes both positive and negative in Overwatch 2 and Overwatch League skins seem to have increased, which is something not so good for the players. These skins use a specific in-game currency that can only be earned through in-store purchase or interactions with the Overwatch League.
Overwatch League (OWL) Tokens can be earned by watching hours of Overwatch League matches live, with a balance of 5 tokens per hour watched. So recently, “Pick ‘Ems”, a contest that allows fans to predict match results for rewards, has started offering OWL Tokens as a reward for picking the correct winner of a game. Fans can receive 3 OWL tokens for each correct prediction. But now they will have to get the OWL Tokens in the shop if they want to buy skins..
Among so many new features of Overwatch 2, in Early Access this seemed to go completely unnoticed, except for one journalist, who pointed out this important change to Blizzard’s free-to-play. Forbes’ Kris Holt noted that the cost to unlock one of the Overwatch League skins certainly increased. The skin in question, Happi Genji – created for the Summer Tournament – was priced at 200 tokens, but is now down to 300.
On the other hand, OWL team skins no longer cost 100, but 150. So this reporter contacted a Blizzard spokesperson, who confirmed that the in-game store price for 100 OWL tokens will change from $5 to $6. For your understanding, if an Overwatch 2 player is interested in wearing an OWL Legendary skin in the future, but hasn’t earned free spectating tokens, they are not a fan of the league and have not participated in Pick ‘Em, you’ll have to pay a total of $18 to get the 300 tokens needed to buy it.
OWL fans who often watch the matches live probably won’t notice this price change, especially if they have a bankroll of OWL chips from getting them in every possible way; and even if they are veteran players, they may already have all the team skins. But the increased cost directly affects those just starting to play Overwatch, and there’s no guarantee that the free-to-play rewards system will carry over into the next season.