Months ago, the first leaked images of Overwatch 2 showed that a Battle Pass was coming to the game. In the meantime, it has become clear that the Battle Pass will come along with a Live – Season system. In return, the Lootboxes will be completely eliminated.

In addition, the PvP part of Overwatch 2 is completely Free2Play. The PvE part might not incur any further costs, at least for Xbox Game Pass subscribers.

What is new now, however, is that you unlock the new heroes via the Battle Pass. After a somewhat unclear advertising text caused displeasure in the community, Jon Spector, Overwatch Commercial Leader, tried to smooth the waters on Twitter.

He explained that new heroes are always unlocked via the free path. How the Battle Pass could work and what reactions there were to it, we show you on MeinMMO.

The new hero of Overwatch in – Season 1 is called Kiriko. Before that, Junker Queen came in the beta, which you can check out in the trailer here:

Battle Pass of Overwatch possibly like Call of Duty

How could the Battle Pass work? Not everything is known about the Pass yet, but we already know:

• There will be live – Season s
• Each Live – Season comes with a Battle Pass
• The pass has a free path and a premium path that costs money
• Heroes are unlocked through the free path
• If you buy the Premium Pass, you will unlock a new hero immediately

Under the Jon Spector tweet, it’s clear that there are still many unanswered questions. How much time do you have to put into the game to unlock heroes? How do you unlock the heroes if you missed them in a Battle Pass? Currently, there are no concrete answers to this question.

However, Activision Blizzard has already stated some time ago that they want to follow their most successful role model for such systems: Call of Duty.

In Call of Duty, you also unlock the new weapons of a – Season via the Battle Pass. Here you will find two new weapons always at level 15 and level 31 of 100. Each level, called “Tier”, takes 40 to 60 minutes. This also depends on how well you play.

The Premium Pass costs 1,000 CoD Points (approx. €10). For 150 CoD points (about 1,50 €), you can skip single levels. In addition, there is always a large Battle Pass bundle for 2,400 CoD Points (approx. €24), which adds extra cosmetics to your inventory and allows you to advance 20 levels in the pass.

If you miss a weapon because you couldn’t reach the levels in a – Season , you unlock the weapons afterwards via Gameplay Challenges. “3 melee kills in 15 different matches” would be a classic challenge for a new weapon.

What are the reactions to the announcement? Under Jon Spector’s tweet, there is hardly anyone who is happy about the changes. There are threats of boycotts and attempts to explain why Heroes in Battle Pass would be a lousy idea for Overwatch 2:

• @OWJaeger: “I have well over 3,000 hours in your game, […] But if you do, I won’t touch OW2.”
• @MirrorkatFeces: “So, heroes don’t automatically unlock? That’s a bug.”
• @NotTheRealRin: “this is a really worrying change and I want you to know it’s dangerous for the game. One of the best things about Overwatch is that everyone is equal. Everyone has access to the same characters.”

Sporadically, however, there are also other voices. @plantarctica, for example, writes that he has been playing Overwatch since 2020 and has never experienced a new hero coming into the game. He thinks that this new system is quite normal and that many competitors do the same. Not a tragic change for him. He rather wonders why people are so excited about it.

Leave us your opinion on the topic as well and write a comment. If you’d rather read more about Overwatch, check out: Overwatch 2 beta ends with mysterious news – Is Blizzard bringing a new fox heroine?