Blizzard Entertainment is "confident" Overwatch 2 can be "successful" without having heroes in the battle pass.
In a recent roundtable interview (via GamesRadar+), game director Aaron Keller discussed the decision to make every hero free for all players, saying that the Overwatch team was aware putting gameplay features behind a paywall would give players a competitive advantage and says its attempts at balancing this issue were not as "effective as we wanted them to be".
Keller said that he believes the chance is "what's best for players and it's what's best for the game."
"When you're developing the way a game is going to fund itself, it can get really complex fast," Keller adds. "I think originally, we had some worries about whether Overwatch 2, as a purely cosmetic game, when you have the ability to get cosmetics for a whole roster of heroes, was going to be successful.
"But putting any type of gameplay behind a paywall can be a competitive advantage for players. I think we did a lot to try to mitigate that - we allowed players to unlock heroes in the Free Battle Pass, we had challenges for it, and we also had an idea that Overwatch 2 would have fewer counters in it, so this problem could be mitigated. Not all of those things we tried were as effective as we wanted them to be."
The announcement was made in a recent developer update where Blizzard revealed that starting in season 10, the first-person multiplayer shooter will make all new heroes immediately free when they launch, including the latest upcoming character Venture.
Keller believes that the game can be a success without having heroes in the battle pass, saying, "We're confident that [by] taking them out, we'll be able to continue to be successful. It's going to allow us to keep making all the cool things we have been making like new heroes, new maps, new game modes, and also we just think that this is the right thing to be doing for all of our players."
Overwatch 2 players have more to look forward to with season 10, as it will also introduce a brand-new limited-time mode called Clash, along with a new map. Unfortunately, we don't have an official release date for season 10 at this time, but we'll keep you updated.
