Overwatch 2 Roadmap Unveiled

Blizzard is known for the fact that they rarely release roadmaps, and if they do, they are quite vague (except for the Hearthstone team, we love you, Team 5). However, this time around, we were in for a pleasant surprise from the Overwatch 2 team, as they gave us a more detailed insight about the Overwatch 2 release date, what is about to come this year, and even a peek of 2023.

Overwatch 2 is going free to play!

Something that was bound to happen is Overwatch 2 being free to play. Since it will share content with Overwatch 1, which was on huge discounts for $5 many times, it would only make sense to make the game free to play, as they probably would not make a lot of money from sales anyway, since the micro transactions are where the money’s at.

Image Credits | Blizzard

Cross-platform progression

Because it will be free to play, players will finally be able to progress their accounts on various platforms. If you happen to be a PC gamer that sometimes wants to hop onto Overwatch League on the Nintendo Switch while they are traveling somewhere without playing on a different account, you will finally be able to do this instead of having to play on two different accounts with different unlocked items.

No more loot boxes!

Considering that Overwatch 2 will be free to play, a lot of people were concerned about the monetization of the game, as the loot boxes would have been the only way Blizzard could make some money from the game. However, they actually did something that nobody expected: completely removing the loot boxes and random chance elements from acquiring cosmetic content.

Instead, they are adding an in-game store, where players will be able to purchase content immediately for real-life money without having to gamble through dozens of boxes before getting enough in-game currency or a lucky roll to get the skin for their favorite hero.

Seasons and Battle Passes

Another huge change that is coming with Overwatch 2 is the introduction of Seasons with Battle Passes. We had Seasons in Overwatch 1, but they were mostly for competitive matches only. In Overwatch 2, they will mostly focus on Battle Passes, which is a model a lot of games use these days.

While we do not know how much the Battle Pass costs or if there will be a free version of the Battle Pass (it will probably have a separate reward track for F2P and purchased passes), it is certainly a great addition to the game.

Of course, this can go quite terribly if the experience required to level the pass is unreasonable, which will force players into purchasing Battle Pass levels, but we really hope that does not happen (especially after the Diablo: Immortal drama).

Image Credits | Blizzard

New upcoming content

While getting new content is obvious, as even Overwatch 1 was getting constant updates, it is nice to have some sort of insight into what we will get once Overwatch 2 is released. The first season of Overwatch 2 ranking is quite big, as it will introduce three new heroes and six new maps, which will undoubtedly be enough to spice up the game and not make it feel the same as Overwatch 1. Here is the list of the full roadmap:

• Season 1 – October 4th – three new heroes, six new maps, a new game mode, 30+ new skins, and a new mythic skin.
• Season 2 – December 6th – New tank hero, new map, 30+ new skins, new mythic skin, and a battle pass
• Future seasons in 2023 – new heroes, new maps, new modes, 100+ new skins, and the PvE mode begins

New skin type

The Mythic skin type is going to be something like we never had before. At the moment, there is a skin concept for Genji only, which is probably going to be the skin that will be released in Season 1 of Overwatch 2, but Blizzard could toss us a curveball and actually release it for someone else.

Weapon charms

One thing that a lot of modern first-person shooters seem to love adding to the game is weapon charms. These are little dangling things that you can add to your guns and add a bit of customization and some of your personality to the gun you are using. It may not be game-changing, but it is certainly a nice thing to have.

Should you be excited?

Considering that this is one of the first times that Blizzard developers actually informed the community about their plans, and from speculation, they all seem incredibly positive, you should most certainly be excited about the game.

Overwatch 2 going free to play and the removal of loot boxes will definitely bring life back to the game, and considering that it is not in the worst spot even now, Overwatch 2 might become the best first-person shooter once again.