Do you want Overwatch to be free to play?

[Luko]

As others have said, I'm pretty positive it's going to be a pay-to-skip-the-grind system. Free to pick up and play but certain features and characters gated behind an in game currency system that takes ages to unlock or a swipe of the credit card.

I'm fine with that. Worked awesome for Hawken.

[Gsara]

Dont really care what it is, but if it isnt ftp it wont even begin to compete with the market.

[Dasani]

Nothing blizzard does is "free".

It will probably be a scheme like MOBAs use where it's free to play, but you have to win a shit ton of games to slowly build up enough points to unlock an additional character. Then there will most likely be skins and shit you have to spend more real money on, or spend real money to buy characters faster.

Either way, they're going to make a ton of bank off this one.

The "buy once, have it all" model isn't as profitable as the "slowly milk you dry over years" model. No one uses it anymore.

[Lumicide]

Free to play leads to an terrible community and it doesn't seem like the type of game for a subscription. I'm hoping it will be a one time purchase with buyable expansion content.

CoD has a good community?

I'm really not a fan of payed expansions in a shooter, they split up the community too much. I'd do a F2P-lite method of payment, whether or not the full game is purchased, such as cosmetics, but allow those to be attainable in-game as well... just at the cost of more time played and perhaps being numerous and completely random.

I absolutely hate paywalled content, or arbitrarily slowed progression for the sake of $ (looks at tribes).

That wouldn't work with Blizzard, look at Heroes of the Storm, it has a shitty system of F2P, unlike dota, which has, in my opinion, the BEST F2P model for a Moba. You buy visual elements, not actual heroes.

And why can't Blizzard do the aesthetic F2P?

[Stormspark]

You really must to be kidding... Paying for that?

I know ppl are bashing it, not cool, but this is just ridiculous.

I agree, I don't see anything worth paying for. I see...something that would make an interesting mini-game if it were part of a larger game. I don't see anything that screams standalone game worth money.

[melodramocracy]

F2P games tend to be shop-emphasis heavy, which is a turn-off for me. If your product looks appealing, I'll happily pay for it, don't try to nickel and dime me for some sense of improved gameplay with a lower up-front entry cost.

That is all.

[Deleted]

Why pay 50$ when they can force you to pay 300$ in cut content and dlc, skins and heroes galore!

[MoanaLisa]

Don't really care but I'm about 99.9999% certain it won't be subscription.

[The Jester]

It'll be free to play.

Either grind your ass out to get good stuff, or pay.

Reminds me of another recent free-to-play blizzard game.

[Kaleredar]

Free to play, but with cosmetic stuff purchasable.

[PaladinBash]

It'll be free to cash in on the TF2 market. It'll work and I'll play it if it's free. If there's extra shit to unlock for cheap (like Hearthstone), I'll pay a little bit for it.

[Oerba Yun Fang]

I voted "I don't care" because... well, I don't care, but I can't see it being attractive to many people if it's not F2P since it'll be contending with TF2.

[Deleted]

Personally, I don't really wan it to be free-to-play. I find it really frustrating not being able to play as any character I want in games like LoL and HoTS, and I'd imagine that, if Overwatch were free-to-play, it would use a similar model to make money. I'd rather pay up front and get the entire game. Having said that, I completely get that being free-to-play would likely be a more profitable business model in the long term, so I would expect it to go that route.

[Luko]

Nothing blizzard does is "free".

It will probably be a scheme like MOBAs use where it's free to play, but you have to win a shit ton of games to slowly build up enough points to unlock an additional character. Then there will most likely be skins and shit you have to spend more real money on, or spend real money to buy characters faster.

Either way, they're going to make a ton of bank off this one.

The "buy once, have it all" model isn't as profitable as the "slowly milk you dry over years" model. No one uses it anymore.

Wait, offering optional quality of life services for money while making almost everything obtainable through time in game is a scheme?

[Kaleredar]

Wait, offering optional quality of life services for money while making almost everything obtainable through time in game is a scheme?

I can't wait to hear how I've been milked of my money without actually spending a dime on heroes of the storm and still acquiring every hero I want to own.

[Comp]

Discuss, I'd want to to be buy to play so that we can keep the free to play kids out. Dont want the game to become even worse than CoD

I would buy it if it were B2P, however I see no reason for it to be a subscription based game at all (just noting due to your poll).

If F2P means a cash siphon to be useful, fun or competitive (like Hearthstone), I'd rather pay for the full game up front.

[Kathranis]

I don't know, really.

If it's free to play, it's easier to access. I'll be able to just tell all my friends to download it and we can jump right in. If it has an entry cost, some of them might not want to make that investment.

I'm also not sure how I'd feel about paying full price for a game that only has an arena PVP component, with no PvE, player hubs, etc. Certainly wouldn't be willing to pay a subscription fee for that.

And yet, an entry cost does keep out the riff-raff.

[Deleted]

this will be f2p like tf2, they make their money via skins or something, of course there will be an in game currency you can grind as well, but it will be painfully slow to incentivize rmt

[Comp]

this will be f2p like tf2, they make their money via skins or something, of course there will be an in game currency you can grind as well, but it will be painfully slow to incentivize rmt

If said currency grind is simply for cosmetics, I don't mind F2P. If it's for game changing options like Hearthstone, I'll most likely pass. I'm mainly looking at Overwatch as something to play randomly with friends, hop in, hop out, etc. without worrying about "keeping up" with it, etc.. Granted, it looks great, and I don't see any reason they'd have anything other than cosmetic gains, so I'm not too worried about it. Definitely excited for now.

[Soltsu]

I hope it's F2P like DOTA 2 (the best F2P format there is IMO). You can play all the heroes from the time you enter the game and you can buy cosmetics IF you want to.

Hope it wouldn't be grind like HotS or LoL.