Overwatch's Microtransactions Detailed And Priced

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

I just don't understand why Blizzard seems to get a free pass on all this crap.

In my opinion they are the absolute worst offenders for bleeding their customers.

Look at WoW, that is now using all 3 MMO payment models:
It is a full-price purchase for the game, as well as separate full price purchases for each expansion,
It has a monthly subscription fee,
And to top it off it has an obscenely over-priced Microtransaction store, which is edging ever closer to P2W territory.

Hearthstone prices are ludicrous - $13 for an alternate hero portrait, $30 for adventures (<1 hour of single player content) which are basically a requirement because essential cards are locked behind that paywall.

HotS isn't much better, and Overwatch will continue the trend.

They are one of, if not the, greediest companies currently in existence.

The WoW in game items you can buy off the shop are mounts, pets, cosmetic items, character boosts, and a game time token. You can't buy gear, currency, profession skill upgrades or reputation: all the parts of the game that actually influence your ability to play in the endgame.

Also, the Blizzard Battlechest is now $25 and contains all the expacs up to Mists of Pandaria, with Warlords of Draenor the only one requiring a separate purchase: so the full game costs (as of this writing) maybe 50-60 bucks. And I expect when Legion is released they will then roll WoD into the base game.

And actually, thanks to the store's aforementioned game token, it is possible - though very grindy - to stop paying cash money to play the game.

 

[Nazulu]

Blizzard $outh and Activi$ion strike again, they love that extra sauce. We'll just see if they really stick to cosmetics only.

Spoiler: They fucking won't!

 

[RedDeadFred]

Are people actually surprised by this? Cosmetic items that you can unlock in game or buy with real money seem to be the norm now. It's unfortunate, but it's not surprising.

 

[Eric the Orange]

Blizzard $outh and Activi$ion strike again, they love that extra sauce. We'll just see if they really stick to cosmetics only.

Spoiler: They fucking won't!

Wait so only the south branch? The rest of blizzard is fine?

 

[tzimize]

Cosmetic items in a game where you cant see your toon. I just dont get it.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

Pretty much all Blizzard games have some form of micro transactions - usually cosmetic - available, and it seems like their player base is generally expecting that. The people I know who are major Blizzard fans that basically live on Battle.net's offerings for their daily / weekly gaming staple-fix are completely fine with that being the case. I am also fine with it personally. The only thing I've ever bought was a skin for Lili in Heroes of the Storm when I hit 40 or something with her, just to celebrate "yay me." No big deal.

As for micro transactions being available in a game when they offer nothing that is mandatory to make the game function properly or real content... yeah, y'know some people want that stuff there and want to have access to a new hat if they feel like it and have a little disposable income to burn on something frivolous for themselves. Strange concept I know, but there is a market for it. Again, myself personally, it's a rare moment I'd spend the cash, but having the option is not a horrible evil thing.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

As long as it's optional content, I don't think anyone is going to have any real problem with it.

 

[Nazulu]

I just don't understand why Blizzard seems to get a free pass on all this crap.

In my opinion they are the absolute worst offenders for bleeding their customers.

Look at WoW, that is now using all 3 MMO payment models:
It is a full-price purchase for the game, as well as separate full price purchases for each expansion,
It has a monthly subscription fee,
And to top it off it has an obscenely over-priced Microtransaction store, which is edging ever closer to P2W territory.

Hearthstone prices are ludicrous - $13 for an alternate hero portrait, $30 for adventures (<1 hour of single player content) which are basically a requirement because essential cards are locked behind that paywall.

HotS isn't much better, and Overwatch will continue the trend.

They are one of, if not the, greediest companies currently in existence.

The WoW in game items you can buy off the shop are mounts, pets, cosmetic items, character boosts, and a game time token. You can't buy gear, currency, profession skill upgrades or reputation: all the parts of the game that actually influence your ability to play in the endgame.

Also, the Blizzard Battlechest is now $25 and contains all the expacs up to Mists of Pandaria, with Warlords of Draenor the only one requiring a separate purchase: so the full game costs (as of this writing) maybe 50-60 bucks. And I expect when Legion is released they will then roll WoD into the base game.

And actually, thanks to the store's aforementioned game token, it is possible - though very grindy - to stop paying cash money to play the game.

Not only is that not a defense, but it's still a great example of how scummy they are. All this extra shit for real money, including over-priced mounts (which used to be something you had to save for), and character boosts to skip to the end, which is still fucking ridiculous, especially when other MMO's gave an option to get more than one class on your characters. And now there are game tokens to make it less grindy! WTF!!!

Not to mention the original game was first sold at full price with monthly payments, and each expansion wasn't exactly cheap when they first launched, and it was possibly the most popular game in the whole world at some point! Blizzard South and Cashtivision are fucking cancer.

 

[Nazulu]

Blizzard $outh and Activi$ion strike again, they love that extra sauce. We'll just see if they really stick to cosmetics only.

Spoiler: They fucking won't!

Wait so only the south branch? The rest of blizzard is fine?

The original Blizzard was called Blizzard North for some reason. One of the main (if not the main) developers left after the 1st expansion of World Of Warcraft (I think) over some argument, and with new developers there they're now referred to as Blizzard South.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

I just don't understand why Blizzard seems to get a free pass on all this crap.

In my opinion they are the absolute worst offenders for bleeding their customers.

Look at WoW, that is now using all 3 MMO payment models:
It is a full-price purchase for the game, as well as separate full price purchases for each expansion,
It has a monthly subscription fee,
And to top it off it has an obscenely over-priced Microtransaction store, which is edging ever closer to P2W territory.

Hearthstone prices are ludicrous - $13 for an alternate hero portrait, $30 for adventures (<1 hour of single player content) which are basically a requirement because essential cards are locked behind that paywall.

HotS isn't much better, and Overwatch will continue the trend.

They are one of, if not the, greediest companies currently in existence.

The WoW in game items you can buy off the shop are mounts, pets, cosmetic items, character boosts, and a game time token. You can't buy gear, currency, profession skill upgrades or reputation: all the parts of the game that actually influence your ability to play in the endgame.

Also, the Blizzard Battlechest is now $25 and contains all the expacs up to Mists of Pandaria, with Warlords of Draenor the only one requiring a separate purchase: so the full game costs (as of this writing) maybe 50-60 bucks. And I expect when Legion is released they will then roll WoD into the base game.

And actually, thanks to the store's aforementioned game token, it is possible - though very grindy - to stop paying cash money to play the game.

Not only is that not a defense, but it's still a great example of how scummy they are. All this extra shit for real money, including over-priced mounts (which used to be something you had to save for), and character boosts to skip to the end, which is still fucking ridiculous, especially when other MMO's gave an option to get more than one class on your characters. And now there there are game tokens to make it less grindy! WTF!!!

Not to mention the original game was first sold at full price with monthly payments, and each expansion wasn't exactly cheap when they first launched, and it was possibly the most popular game in the whole world at some point! Blizzard South and Cashtivision are fucking cancer.

No, the game tokens represent game time you can pay for with in-game gold, currently they go for about 46k on the AH so getting enough dosh together is where the grind comes in.

As for the mounts, honestly they're really boring compared to the ones you still have to grind for in game or rely on the RNG to drop.

And how is scummy to no longer charge for the old expansions and instead roll them into the base game?

 

[Nazulu]

I just don't understand why Blizzard seems to get a free pass on all this crap.

In my opinion they are the absolute worst offenders for bleeding their customers.

Look at WoW, that is now using all 3 MMO payment models:
It is a full-price purchase for the game, as well as separate full price purchases for each expansion,
It has a monthly subscription fee,
And to top it off it has an obscenely over-priced Microtransaction store, which is edging ever closer to P2W territory.

Hearthstone prices are ludicrous - $13 for an alternate hero portrait, $30 for adventures (<1 hour of single player content) which are basically a requirement because essential cards are locked behind that paywall.

HotS isn't much better, and Overwatch will continue the trend.

They are one of, if not the, greediest companies currently in existence.

The WoW in game items you can buy off the shop are mounts, pets, cosmetic items, character boosts, and a game time token. You can't buy gear, currency, profession skill upgrades or reputation: all the parts of the game that actually influence your ability to play in the endgame.

Also, the Blizzard Battlechest is now $25 and contains all the expacs up to Mists of Pandaria, with Warlords of Draenor the only one requiring a separate purchase: so the full game costs (as of this writing) maybe 50-60 bucks. And I expect when Legion is released they will then roll WoD into the base game.

And actually, thanks to the store's aforementioned game token, it is possible - though very grindy - to stop paying cash money to play the game.

Not only is that not a defense, but it's still a great example of how scummy they are. All this extra shit for real money, including over-priced mounts (which used to be something you had to save for), and character boosts to skip to the end, which is still fucking ridiculous, especially when other MMO's gave an option to get more than one class on your characters. And now there there are game tokens to make it less grindy! WTF!!!

Not to mention the original game was first sold at full price with monthly payments, and each expansion wasn't exactly cheap when they first launched, and it was possibly the most popular game in the whole world at some point! Blizzard South and Cashtivision are fucking cancer.

No, the game tokens represent game time you can pay for with in-game gold, currently they go for about 46k on the AH so getting enough dosh together is where the grind comes in.

As for the mounts, honestly they're really boring compared to the ones you still have to grind for in game or rely on the RNG to drop.

And how is scummy to no longer charge for the old expansions and instead roll them into the base game?

Oh good. I was I hoping I was wrong about those tokens, because that would've been insane.

As for the mounts, that's your opinion! Back in the day it was a big deal to finally get one, but that challenge no longer exists now, so it shits on the experience while also bleeding those certain people.

In your last sentence you missed the point. I said they 'first' sold at full (or nearly full) price, the first 5 or whatever expansions, but I haven't been keeping track of the last couple. And besides, it's not 'good' they rolled them into the base game, it's that they had to so people can afford to get it all. I don't think it would look great to any new player if they found out they had to pay for each expansion separately to get the new additions. That would be absurd.

 

[major_chaos]

Oh look, an Activision-Blizzard game has awful microtransations and in implemented in a scummy way.

Two crates with like 4 (100% cosmetic) items each for less than the price of one TF2\CS:GO crate key is "awful and scummy" now. mmmmmmm'k.

OT: We are calling this a surprise now? I was under the impression that it was common knowledge that crates would be buyable with real money and the only reason you couldn't in the beta was because the servers were getting reset repeatedly. What comes as a surprise to me is how good those prices are. I'll never use them because you get stuff at a good pace just by playing well, but if someone has more money than time that $40 pack would get you a massive chunk of the unlockables and enough ingame currency to pick up a good bit of whats left.

 

[Seanfall]

I really don't mind as it's purely cosmetic and still random drop. Nothing in the boxes affects gameplay other then Swag factor...and...oh. *gets a headache* I just used 'Swag' didn't I? I apologize to languages everywhere for that.

But back on Topic as you only get one set of Randoms every time you level I really don't see the problem in letting anyone who wants to get a little ahead of how many vanity items they have.

 

[09philj]

I don't really care that much. It's a game that's going to need some continuous support, so I can't really begrudge them another revenue stream that doesn't effect game play. If the crates had anything other than cosmetic items, that would be a problem.

 

[Metalrocks]

well, certainly sneaky but as many have stated: its cosmetics. but then again, if its like in the beta and you get coins really rarely to actually get a skin or anything you like for your character, then its like the MKX part with painful low costs that you are forced to buy these boxes.
i guess i will find out in the following weeks. didnt had a chance yet to play it since im busy with other stuff.

 

[Deathfish15]

"It's cosmetics, it's not P2W"....OMFG, you fools! The basic differences between characters in this game are the cosmetics you have. They essentially are the Bronze, Silver, and Gold medals for players. Are you completely oblivious to the social status of hats in TF2?!!!! They are the win factor. Skins and other cosmetics in this game will be the same way.

All that and this is a game that costs $40. The $60 'Origin' Edition is basically $20 more for 5 character skins and some unlocks in other Blizzard games. That is right up front cost for cosmetics that was kind of blatantly obvious that they'd be doing it for the game going forward.


Try to be as apologetic as possible for Blizzard all you want. It won't win you any brownie points at all. Instead those watching from the sidelines will shake their head and say "what a great bait; look at all those sucker-fish!".

 

[Zelderahn]

Y'kno it was pretty much a sudden surprise move to add the lootboxes accessible for cash, but I have to be honest that it seems like one of the worst kinds of things to put money into all things considered.

You have to be REALLY impatient to buy a chance at a cosmetic, with a chance for duplicates, in a game where you largely don't get to see your character. Part of me wonders if it is 'okay' to offer the service for INCREDIBLY impatient people to pay for it, but in the end it isn't going to touch my core enjoyment of the game.

I mean, when Valve released the Manconomy update many years ago now I thought it was a joke too.. I guess it's the way the wind is blowing.

 

[Zaydin]

The loot boxes always seemed like something they would eventually charge for, I didn't actually know this was a secret or unsuspected.

I read somewhere that if you get a duplicate item from a loot crate it gets converted into in-game currency that you can use to buy whatever you want. If it's true then I think that helps balance out the RNG factor.

This is true, though I have not really figured out a way to redeem the coins. I wasn't paying much attention to it tbh.

You know the numbers next to various cosmetics in the Hero Gallery?

That's their credit cost. If you have, say, 25 credits, you can buy a single spray for a character. The Legendary skins require like 1000 credits.

 

[anthony87]

Also, the Blizzard Battlechest is now $25 and contains all the expacs up to Mists of Pandaria, with Warlords of Draenor the only one requiring a separate purchase:

Actually as of a couple of weeks ago it goes all the way up to Warlords of Draenor. The concession being that there's no longer an instant lvl 90 boost.