RIP Overwatch on MMOBomb -- For Now
Apart from maybe the occasional mention on the F2P cast, it seems we won't be talking much more about Overwatch on this site -- for a while, at least.
At BlizzCon, Blizzard confirmed the business model for Overwatch would most definitely not be free-to-play. You can pre-purchase the game now, either in a base variety for PC at $39.99, the Origins Edition for $59.99, or the Collector's Edition, which comes with a Soldier: 76 statue, available from Best Buy, Amazon, or Gamestop for $129.99.
It's a curious move, given Blizzard's recent successful foray into free-to-play with Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm. There are also a lot of titles with similar gameplay coming out soon that will be free-to-play, like Gigantic, LawBreakers, Paladins, and more. Granted, this is Blizzard, and the marketing push has been extreme, so it's not like Overwatch will have trouble getting an audience, but one of those other games could find a hole to exploit that lets it grab a significant portion of the market share.
If we had to guess, we'd think that the game will be B2P now, with a F2P switch coming in a year or two, after sales have slowed down. Business-wise, it's not a terrible idea, getting early cash now and then cashing in on a wider population later, and it still might beat those other games to market. Still, it's a little sad to think that we won't be able to cover Overwatch here any more or play it when it comes out without ponying up the cash. It seemed perfectly suited for free-to-play, but apparently Blizzard doesn't agree.
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About the Author
Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.
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AND how this is will be a competitive versus TF 2 ... the answer is - it won't ... cause TF2 is F2P a it will still RULE over the Overwatch
Another thing thats pressing is this fake free to play garbage that every company is doing to get high premiums which will boil well over what they even put into the game because rich people seem to not care about what they spend on (or their kids anyway). So what they do is trick people into buying a game as "free to play" so that they can feel like the elite few who got to play the game... This has been happening for a while now and I don't see it stopping any time soon.
Oh ya to the people who state they need the money to develop the game more I can tell you right now you know nothing about it at all. When you get in to a gaming business you either get support from a major company to start out or you flop its that simple this crap about needing founder packs to support the game is a complete lie. IN most cases they use founder packs as a means to see how much people are willing to spend on their game and adjust accordingly. Take dragomon hunter as a prime example for this tactic that "failed".
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Charge a premium, then switch to F2P milking.