Overwatch will cost to play, Might Not have DLC or Expansions

While there was a lot of hype at BlizzCon surrounding the tournaments, the cosplay, the World of Warcraft cinematics and trailers as well as the hubbub around Heroes of the Storm, the real VIP of this year’s BlizzCon was their upcoming FPS MOBA, Overwatch. There was a host of news surrounding the game, including the release date (spring 2016) and some cinematic work, but perhaps the most important thing discussed about Overwatch was the content itself--in this free-to-play microtransaction DLC-style market, what kind of game would Overwatch market itself as?
 


Not free-to-play, as it turns out--unlike Blizzard’s other MOBA, Heroes of the Storm (speaking of, when are we gonna get Overwatch characters in that mess?), Overwatch will indeed cost you to play--$40 for the PC master race, and $60 if you’re a console-using peasant. As for why it will cost so much, well, speaking with Kotaku, Principle designer Scott Mercer explained:
 

“From the beginning, we knew this was a game all about heroes. As we continued to work on it and add more heroes to it, hero-switching became a really key component. To really provide for a breadth of heroes to allow for that switching—to let people look at the other team and say, ‘OK, let’s change our lineup a little bit’—became core to Overwatch. To support that, we need to have our 21 heroes [from the start]. Not just, like, one tank, one support, one ranged character or something. You’ve got multiple different tanks and whatnot.”

So you have all characters from the get-go, which means the standard ‘unlock over time’ system simply won’t work? Fair enough, I suppose, except that Valve’s DOTA 2 works the exact same way but they still make money hand over first via cosmetics. He did say that the team would be willing to re-evaluate their position if things change, but coming from Blizzard--the owner of one of the few MMORPGs that can get away with subscription fees--they’ll probably make it work.

But it doesn’t stop there. See, just because you’re a paid game doesn’t mean you don’t have to fall into the same conventions as free-to-play (see--Payday 2), and for a game like Overwatch--which is going to ship with 21 playable characters--it’s easy to see where they might make some extra cash: DLC heroes. But oddly enough, that doesn’t seem to be Blizzard’s plan. Game Director Jeff Kaplan, speaking with PC Gamer this time, shared the company's doubts when it came to adding new heroes.
 

“We're not sure if and when and how we're going to add new heroes to the game at all… I think there was a misconception that went around early on-and I'm not sure how this came about-that you would get 21 heroes when the game launched, but there would be a 'hero store' with other heroes for sale at launch also, and that just couldn't be further from the truth. There was also a misconception that we would be selling maps, and we've never had any intention of selling maps."

So Overwatch would, indeed, be bucking standard MOBA practice by giving you all the content from the start and giving you nothing to unlock. Bold, but also extremely dangerous, as it’s that sense of progression that often keeps players playing. Perhaps the cinematics--which were spoken about as being important to the game--will act as that lure, perhaps not. In the meantime, we’ve got a few months to hear more from Blizzard until we find out ourselves.